Discontinued Ranma Stories
by imortis
Summary: these are the fics that i have started but couldn't muster the juice to keep them up, so i'm posting them as chapters and possible ideas for other authors who might want to take a wack at them
1. ending

An End of a Beginning   
tentively begun by   
imortis 

Akane was angry. No, angry isn't the word for it. Akane was enraged. She punched the wooden board ranma used all the time for his training harder as she thought about what had happened eariler at school. She was sitting almost civilly with the asshole, for once he was keeping quiet, when kodachi appeared and started hanging all over him. She had gotten angry then, normal anger really, who wouldn't get angry at their fiancé for groping her rival for his hand right in front of her? She had pounded the baka hard, then had to suffer the insult of having him get between her and her revenge on kodachi, totally insulting her right to settle it by calling her a 'weakling girl' in front of the entire school. 

Then kodachi kissed him. Her anger had grown watching them stand there, ranma let it go on for three minutes before pretending to try and get away from her. He'd tried to defend it saying he didn't want it but she could see the blush on his face, the pleased look in his eyes. Then the last straw happened. He COMANDED HER!! To stop picking fights she had no hope of winning, kodachi had sneered so insultingly at her that she attacked. She got in two good hits before ranma got between them, thats when kodachi had hit her in the face with a spiked club.. 

Ranma just stood there looking wide eyed at the blood, stood there and watched her humiliation as the bitch laughed. Instead of defending her, as he should have! He grabbed akane up and ran strait for tofus clinic, the whole time cursing her stupidity for trying to fight everyone better then her.   
She snarled pounding the post so hard it snapped off like it was paper thin. She stood there heaving in anger, the stitching on her face hurting like hell, deriving her rage even higher. She gripped her fists looking down at the post wishing it was ranma or kodachi, or that it was still standing. She looked around and almost screamed in animal rage seeing ranma watching her closely from the porch. She turned away from him and stalked across the yard wishing she still had something to break. She stomped around the dojo a few times doing one thing, trying to think of a revenge so terrible that kodachi would never dare come near her again. She blinked stopping as she rounded the dojo for the seventh time to see ranma standing against the dojos side, directly in her path. He looked at her firtively without turning his head her way and cleared his throat "are you ok?" he asked softly. Akane glared at him "what the hell do you care?! Just get lost, I'm not going to forgive you any time soon." 

Ranma blinked looking at her "what?!" he exclaimed. She glared gripping her fists "don't even dare pretend you don't know what I'm talking about! First you humiliate me in front of the school by groping that slut right in front of me!! Then you insulted me even worse when you stopped me from fighting that.... kuno! Your the reason I'm going to have a scar on my face!!! you stopped me! If you gave a shit about me you would have stopped her!! But no! You cared more about her then me and now I'm going to live the rest of my life with this!!!" She flung her hand at her face glaring at him in her rage. 

He looked away in guilt as she stood there heaving at him. Ranma shuffled his feet a bit trying to think of something to say "no, don't bother." she spat venomiously cutting him off when he got up the nerve "its obvious you care more about flirting with the sluts that hang on you then you do me. Well you know what? I don't care anymore. You can go to hell saotome ranma, because theres more chance of my marrying kuno then someone that won't respect my right to defend myself. You've disrespected me from the first time we saw each other, I'm not putting up with it anymore. Go to ukyo, she seems to be one to put up with your insulting, sexist attitude all the time."   
She looked up from the stunned look on ranmas face to see ryouga standing there looking deeply pleased. She smiled at him "ryouga, would you like to go on a training trip with me? I need to train hard so I can pay that bitch back for scarring me." Ryouga nodded quickly coming forward "of course akane-chan! We can leave when your ready!" he exclaimed excitedly. Ranma looked on wide eyed "akane...!" he breathed. She looked at him and the fire entered her eyes again "I told you to get lost." 

-----   
Akane pulled her pack tightly to her shoulder and grinned hurrying into the house and into the kitchen to hug kisumi. She blinked stopping as she walked into the room to seeing the unusually somber look on kisumis face. She blinked at her for a minute before she turned and smiled in forced happiness and surprise "akane! Your home! I'm so glad to see you!" she exclaimed rushing forward to hug her tightly. Akane blinked almost in surprise at the feirce grip she had on her "hi kisumi.... where is everyone? I figured... ranma would be fighting with his father or something." Kisumis face looked stricken for a minute before she looked away "no.... ranmas gone."   
Akane blinked at her "he is? I guess I shouldn't be surprised he left." she snorted scowling slightly, but let it go, she had been over her anger for the last five months. Kisumi looked at her for a few minutes silently before turning back to the stove "akane... what happened between you and ryouga?" Akane blinked in surprise at the question and sat down "we trained for a long time, after that he.. Left. Why?" Kisumi set down her cutting knife and stood there "what else happened?" Akane looked down blushing slightly "we.... why? Why are you asking me this?" 

Kisumi turned around and looked at her "I need to know akane." Akane looked at her a little in concern "what happened? Why are you so serious?" Kisumi sat down and looked at her quietly "tell me, please." Akane sighed looking down "we... it was after I learned the breaking point.... we were so... happy, it just happened...." Kisumi nodded "you had sex with him." Akane blushed not speaking "go on." She cleared her throat not looking up "the next day ryouga told me he loved me and.... he told me about his curse, he told me how he got it and how he had used it to 'protect me' from ranma. I.... I felt so betrayed.... I left him there, told him I hated him and left." 

Kisumi nodded sadly looking down "ranma stopped training the day you left. He told the other girls to leave him alone and wouldn't speak to them after that. All he did all day was sit in his room and stare at the wall. After about five months of this.... ryouga appeared." She looked at her hands depressed "ranma didn't even put up a fight, ryouga came in screaming how you were his now and that ranma had done something to make you hate him. Father and uncle genma tried to stop him, if grandfather happosai hadn't been in the house he would have killed ranma. He hadn't done more then walk to school and back since you left... and he didn't resist at all...." She sniffed wiping at the tears in her eyes "aunite was forced to use her sword on ryouga when he knocked out grandfather. He died soon after." 

Akane gapped in horror at her "ry- ryouga...." she breathed. Kisumi looked at her "ranma hasn't said a word to anyone since he got out of the hospital, he can barely walk, not that he does. They had him moved back to the hospital when he tried to commit seppuku....." she shook her head crying hard now "ranmas spirit died when ryouga told him akane, last time I saw him.... its like the ranma I knew is gone, none of the person we knew is left in him!" Akane hurried around the table and hugged her sister tight in horror and grief, blinking at the tears in her eyes. After a half hour kisumi got ahold of herself and pulled away "he.... he left a note for you when he tried to kill himself..." she quickly left the room. Akane sat there dazed, and dreading the idea of ranma leaving a letter for her when he intended to kill himself. 

Kisumi came back in the room and grimly handed her a sealed envelope with her name on it "he gave it to me and made me promise no one but you would see it." she explained. Akane looked at it a little fearfully before gathering her courage and ripped it open. 

"Dear akane. It took me a while after you left to realize just how much I wronged you. I realize I deserved every word of what you said. I know I was wrong, but I could not stop myself. The thought of anything hurting you was an agony in my chest. I didn't know I loved you, I knew I liked you and wanted to protect you, but I didn't realize how much I loved you until you left. I wanted nothing more then to rip kodachis throat out for hurting you that day.... and it hurt too much hearing your words that day or I would have told you about the feelings I'd been struggling to understand. I couldn't get past the pain of watching you leave with ryouga, and knowing I'd ruined my life. I suspect that someones told you about mom killing ryouga a few weeks ago, the hospitals let me out and I'm sitting here writing this letter. I just wanted to at least let you know why I did what I did all the time. I dearly did not intend to humiliate you that day. I was scared, and the words came out before I could stop them, an old habit that has cost me so much." 

"Everytime I see the girls start to attack you, it terrified me. It filled me with so much fear that my instinct did most of the work when it happened, scared of you getting hurt.... and of myself if they hurt you. I took off that day she hurt you because I could feel the need to rip her apart clawing at my control, I could feel the fire that consumed saffron raging to be let out and that scared me as much as you being hurt. I realize now that you were my only reason for continuing to fight it, too much, far too much for me to deal with anymore, so I locked myself away from everyone and gave up the art. Then ryouga..... I found myself disgusted that he couldn't even do me that one favor in the end, I woke up. Stupid idiot could never get anything right. I wanted to die, it was so clear that I needed to die, without you all I am is a dangerous animal that should have been put down long ago, you kept me human. So while I can still think strait I'm going to do this." 

"I don't want you to think this is just some way to get revenge akane, it isn't. From the moment I met you... the beast inside me was quiet. When you smiled at me and asked to be my friend.... for the first time since it happened the thing eating at my mind was quiet. Then when all the anger started, it sent me the insults, it wanted to lash out at you for hurting us like that, I have to confess akane.... I lied when I said..... I never remembered when I went into the catfist. The catfist was a nightmare for me before I met you, horrific images of the things it did. When he came out I was so scared for you, but he didn't do anything, I found I could control him a little. I was so elated that I had found someone that could help me control my demon that I stole a kiss from you. Anyways, after you left..... kodachi was found ripped to peices.... and my nightmares started again. I know it was the cat because her face was unrecognizable. After that I stopped leaving my room. I'm writing this down so that you'll know why I have to die. I can't stand it any longer, every time it happened, pop covering it up, I never told him I could see what the cat was doing, or told him about how I would see him digging a shallow grave every now and then. I hated him for that. He never told me about any of it." 

"Why did I write that? I don't know, I guess I should tell someone and I trusted you above even myself. I guess the catfist is why I wouldn't let myself get close to you, I was afraid of letting someone close again, pop put that demon in my head when I trusted him. I was afraid that if I let myself show my love for you.... I would have a nightmare of pop burying you. Funny isn't it? One of the bravest men I know and I was too paralized by fear to let myself love the only one I could ever care for. Good bye akane, I love you even though I know you never loved me." 

Both akane and kisumi sat there in shock after she finished reading the letter "Oh my.... Poor ranma.... No wonder he was so tortured." kisumi whispered through her hand. Akane held the letter close looking at the table top dazed. Both of them looked up hearing the telephone ring and kisumi got up to get it. She shreeked softly dropping the reciever after a second making akane get up. She picked up the phone "hello?" she asked softly. 

Nibikis voice was on the line "akane, finally came home huh? Well its too late. This morning ranma ripped genmas throat out when his parents came to visit him. He severely wounded himself with nodokas sword. How the hell they let her bring that in to him I will never know. They say genma was harping on him and he went mad. I hope it was worth it akane." 

Akane dropped the phone covering her mouth and started to sob without knowing why. Kisumi picked up the phone "how.... How is he doing?" she whispered softly. Nibiki sniffed "he's very weak, but they say hes stable at the moment, he hurt himself very badly kisumi." Kisumi shook in unshed tears before blinking at akane as she jumped up grabbing the letter from the table. Kisumi blinked after her "akanes coming nibiki. Ranma left her a note, it..... you'll see." Nibiki blinked at that "what note?" she aksed. Kisumi sniffed "ranma left a note for akane when he tried to kill himself. Oh nibiki, how could we not see how tortured ranma was?" she cried softly. Nibiki blanched a bit "ranma... left akane a note before he tried to kill himself? What does it say, kisumi? What do you mean?" she aksed making both soun and nodoka who was with her stare. 

Kisumi sniffed "genmas a very bad man little sister." she said softly and hung up the phone. Nibiki looked at it and hung up "what did she say?" soun asked. Nibiki frowned deeply "she said ranmas a very tortured young man, and that genma is a very bad man." she said simply looking at them and tofu. He looked grim at that "this all has something to do with genma?" tofu aksed. Nibiki nodded "akane has the suicide note ranma left, kisumi said shes bringing it to us."   


Everyone looked up when the doors to the waiting room burst open and stared shocked at the crying girl that hurried into the room. She sniffed looking at them and pulled a sheet of paper out of her pocket and handed it to nodoka silently. She opened it and sat down covering her mouth. Everyone stared at her but akane who was crying osftly near her. When she finished it she put it down and hugged akane crying softly herself. Nibiki picked it up and read through it paling softly. She looked down for a mometn before reading ti again "genma was an evil man." she murmured softly letting tofu have it. He rumbled softly looking at it "this would explain many of the things we wondered about ranma." he murmured softly letting soun have it. He looked and paled bleach white "s- saotome? He..." he said softly looking stunned. Akane sniffed looking at tofu "can I see him?" she aksed soflty. 

He looked donw "not right now, when he woke up he tried to attack some of the doctors and we restrained him." he murmured sadly. Akane started crying agian and hugged nodoka tightly after a few minutes they heard a thoughtful rumble and blinekd seeing cologne lower the note "this explains many things." she siad offering ti to happosai who was standing beside her looking sad. He read it and hissed "that stupid fool! I warned him! I told him not to seek out the catfist and the fool went and did it anyways!!" he shouted angrilly. Cologne looked at him "he asked you about it?" Happosai nodded "I told him, I told him that the only thing the catfist can do is make a monster and he did it anyways! I say he got off lucky!" he spat. The doctors in the room blinked at them "what exactly is wrong with mr saotome?" one aksed looking curious. Tofu cleared his throat walking over and started talking with them in soft tones. 

They gapped in horror and looked at the note he held out to them. They looked grim nodding "I see, I don't know what we can do for him then, we don't deal in demon possession." one of them said plantively. Another looked thoughtful "I think I know someone who could help." he said simply. All the other doctors looked at him "what do you mean?" the attending asked curiously. He held up his hand "bare with me here, I know of a man who I believes is an actual warlock, he has done some amazing things that I can't explain, he once told me about having knowledge of demons, maybe he can help the boy." They blinekd at him "and if its just a split personality brought on by acute childhood trama and abuse?" another asked. He shrugged "maybe we can convence him to eleminate the second personality if we convence him hes been excorsized." he suggested. 

He held up his hand seeing their disbelieving looks "I know it sounds like a stupid idea, but I've been reading the journal of late and came across a report done b a man in america that theorizes that if a person believes something totally, the mind will make it real, he quoted cases of patients who were convences they had been stabbed while under hypnosis and the mind made the wound real, the poor man had to have seven stitches to close the hole in his side." They stared at him "and you think if this man comes in and convences him hes destoryed the demon that the boy will come out of his pshycosis?" one aksed. He nodded "the boy obviously thinks a demon is inside him, and.... if its the truth..... then it would be handy to have a man who knows magic on hand." 

They looked ill at ease at that "we will be watching your warlock while he does it if you deside to do this." cologne said standing beside them with happosai . He nodded "we should be able to tell right away if this man your talking about is real." he said firmly. They looked at him "and how is that?" the doctor asked. They looked at him "because between us we know more about demons and magic then anyone alive." cologne siad simply. They looked at them and tofu nodded "I don't know anyone who knows more about this then these two." They nodded after a miute agreeing "we can't think of anything else to do." one rumbled softly. They sighed "call your friend, ask him if he can help us." tofu told the doctor. He nodded leaving to find a phone.   


so what do you think? i'm stuck myself, if you want to, run with the idea, send me the finihsed product, i look forward to seeing it. 


	2. nano-future

Nano-Future   
by   
imortis 

Ranma woke up from what seemed like an endless dream of   
terror and mad nightmares, only to find he was NOT where he   
exspected to be. In fact, from the strange egg like thing   
full of... what ever, he thought that maybe he was still   
dreaming "sir! Subject ONE just broke out of the nutrient   
cocoon!" a female voice said from a speaker over his head   
"thats impossible, subject one is subject one, because he's   
an incurable dolt! Acording to the history chips, his body was   
half destroyed by the first nano plague." a mans voice said   
stuffily. Ranma looked down at himself and saw that his   
limbs were all there, but couldn't figure out why he felt so   
light headed. He looked into the thing he was leaning on   
and half screamed recognizing the face in the tube "whats   
this? Theres activity near cocoon two, who said the   
administrator was to be released?!" the man exclaimed then   
cried out as the cocoon was shattered. ranma looked down at   
her as her body fell out into his arms. He cradled her head   
for a second after pulling the tube out of her throat and   
induced vomiting in a panic. After a minute she started   
gasping lungfuls of air as she stared wildly around the   
place. ranma, distracted from the fact that both of them   
were naked, looked up to see ten or twenty men rush out and   
stop on the other side of the two eggs "sir! Cocoons one   
and two have been... shattered by the looks of it, we have   
two, I repeat, two teens at the scene." 

ranma backed away from the men still clutching at her   
slippery body as she stared up at him "freeze it kid! Don't   
make us stun you!" the man barked. ranma snarled raising his   
hand and light flaired from it "one step forward until I   
find out what the hells going on and I'll blow this place to   
hell!" he yelled. The girl reached out and caught his hand   
"no don't!" she exclaimed holding onto him. He let the ki   
go as she looked at the man "soldier! Who are you and is   
this still jusenkyo station around tendo ke? Who are you, I   
don't recognize your insignia." she barked comandingly. The   
man winced, this was the reason he hated working this part   
of the station "control, would you please get someone in   
authority down here?! Who the hell was in cocoons one and   
two?" 

Everyone looked up hearing running feet coming from the lift   
into the room "you hurt who ever that is corptain and   
you'll be cleaning ring debris from the raban wars from   
every inhabited system!" a voice that sounded like kisumi,   
but much older and stern, said as a graying woman in long   
flowing pants and shirt came into view. She smirked and   
ranma was shocked speachless as she tip toed through the   
fluid and came over to them "why ranma! I just knew you   
really cared about akane after all!" she said happily.   
Ranma blinked at kisumi for a minute before colapsing in on   
himself and akane yelped falling out of him arms. Kisumi   
caught her "get these two to a recovery room, three minutes   
ago!" 

Akane looked at her sister in almost the same type of shock   
ranma had displayed "kisumi?" she asked softly. She smiled   
at her "yes dear! They woke me up four hundred years ago   
having found a cure for the bio toxin the rabans used to   
destroy earths biosphere. Boy I was asleep for a long time!   
I hear you are a legend around here, and ranma! He was   
mythic in my day! They have churches out there now, praising   
him as the savior of mankind!" she said smiling. Akane   
smiled laying down on the stretcher and looked over at   
ranmas face as they were pushed into the medical ward "he is   
sis, he saved the world when everyone gave up on him. He   
stopped the first alien invasion single handed, giving us   
time to prepare for next time."   
  


Ranma grinned to himself as the shaking stopped "control,   
this is saotome one, I've just broken atmosphere and not   
even a fortieth of my ki fuel was used up. Thats for the   
record people! Hear that akane?! The ki systems we   
designed work!!" he crowed over the comm link as he zig   
zagged in and about the station his wife was housed in "yes   
I heard love! Don't you dare slam that roman candle into   
the station!" she laughed over the comm. He crowed again   
flipping the ship about and did a super tight u-turn around   
the station "everythings green my huntress! I just did so   
many menuvers that the shuttle systems would have broken   
into peices and ran out of fuel at the same time! And I'm   
not even tired! The jupiter run is ready to go, but you   
know, honey, baby, if you want I can dock at the station and   
take a night to rest from my exertions." he said softly   
grinning into the monitor attatched to the top of the pilots   
con along with all the digital read out and just plain old   
line of sight i.e. the old eye ball method 

akane grinned at him and held up a two year old girl "ah!   
Both my babies are in my cockpit! Damn I feel like   
dancing!" he said letting the pleasure of a near perfect   
lift off in a ship no one said would work, and that some   
violently opposed to their efforts, he felt like he could   
take on the world. The girl yelled waving at him and he   
touched the screen "hey baby! Hows space treating you?" he   
asked looking back at his systems then grinned tilting his   
ship sideward and gently tapped the part of the station he   
was near. When everyone jumped looking over at him he   
grinned waving at his startled wife and touched the cockpit   
window, when his daughter jumped up and down and ran to the   
window yelling something. He laughed blowing her a kiss.   
Akane joined her at the window "get that thing in dock, I   
feel like teaching you not to abuse saotome enterprises   
property." Ranma looked outraged "what?! This stuff is mine   
too akane! If I feel like slamming into a mountain side to   
find out what happens, its an exspariment with very definite   
results, so where are you going to hold this repremand?" he   
asked grinning. Akane let go of the mike for a minute as   
she spoke to the girl and handed the mike to her "DADDY! COME   
HOME FOR THE NIGHT!!!!!!" 

When ranma hopped out of the docking ring he was assaulted by   
one gorgious lady and one adorable little girl. He picked   
the girl up and started tickling her "you thought that was   
funny huh?!" he growled in mock anger and turned her upside   
down and held her that way, she squealed in joy. Ranma   
pulled akane into his arms and grinned at her "I hope you   
don't have an early take off planned for me, you won't believe   
how wound up I am." he rumbled pulling her into his arms and   
arched his eye brow suggestively. She giggled grinding   
herself against him "you take off late tomarrow. Come on,   
your mother and father are waiting for you." she giggled   
taking the girl and skipped off "ah! Don't leave me   
hanging!" he wailed bouncing after and caught up with them   
at their quarters "munchken, why don't you go play with the   
air in your room for a few hours." he suggested tickling her   
for a second. She giggled coasting over to her grandparents   
and plastered herself into nodokas arms as she willingly   
took her "what are you going to do daddy?" she asked   
happily. He grinned "well you know how you wanted a puppy?   
How about a little brother?" he asked grinning at akane as   
he pulled her into his arms. She grinned delighted with the   
idea, she didn't want to admit to even herself that she   
feared for ranmas safety "cool! Will I be able to dress   
him?!?" she squealed happily. Everyone face faulted and   
ranma chuckled braking off his exsploration if the inside   
of akanes jumpsuit.   


Ranma flipped on his long distance sensors and looked   
longingly at the blip that was quickly resieding from the   
screen "I love you family. And you can be damn sure that   
god himself is going to have to slap me down to stop me from   
coming back to watch my wife get all bloated and angry!" he   
declaired pushing a finger into the air to confirm his   
statement. Akane laughed, the fear leaving her face a little   
"oh ya? And what will you do about it?" she asked looking   
reasured when nodoka took her hand "well I figure I could   
sit in bed all day and feed you bits of icecream and rub   
your feet when they hurt, but I'm sure we can find other   
more interesting things to do with our time." he said   
grinning. He looked up and nodded as a smaller blip   
appeared on his screen "scanners picking up the old rusty   
god of war honey bunny. Thats another one for the books   
family mine! Distance sprinting from earth to mars, four   
hours. And I haven't even started feeling tired, fuel gauge   
says I'm one tenth depleated, an hours rest will replace   
that. You can't begin to understand how horny this makes   
me love! Only one mars orbiting mission was done by man,   
that was four years ago and they had to come right back. Oh   
god this is so cool!! I'm going to places only five men   
have been to, and I'm going to stay there long enough for a   
nap." he stopped and looked worried for a minute then   
grinned settling down "check that, I'm too excited for the   
nap, ki batteries are already recharging. Am I supposed to   
feel like a god?" 

Ranma disengaged his main engine "main thrusters off, orbital   
propulsion systems on line. You know, you never realize   
how much junk it takes to make up an asteroid belt until you   
look at it. Makes me feel like a fly in a hale storm." he   
muttered and grinned flicking his eyes at the screen to see   
akane asleep at the monitor "good, at least your sleeping."   
he whispered. He smiled happily as he gently nudged his way   
through the wall of rock chunks "I would like to point out   
to the fuckups at plan-net, there is no way in hell they are   
going to get large ships through this without major damage,   
they'll have to cut away at this shit. Ah, got it, we can   
start saotome asteroid mining corps, although I cringe at   
the idea of some of this stuff getting back to earth...." he   
threw on the brakes suddenly and looked with sickening   
realization as he realized what he was seeing "akane." he   
called gently. Then more loudly "hey is anyone but my wife   
in the monitoring room?!?" he yelled and she jerked up and   
awake "ranma! What is it?! You sound scared!" she called   
rubbing her eyes, about then others came into the room.   
Ranma flipped on his flood lights and iluminated the   
relitively flat plan of rock with what was unmistakibly,   
buildings. 

Ranma yawned as he moved closer into the the valley between   
the two large dome buildings and nudged to a stop near a   
window "akane, what is the salvage law again?" he asked.   
She blinked "ranma, that was meant for sea wrecks." she said   
her reading glasses sliding down her nose "well even if it   
isn't legal here goes." he cleared his throat and hit the   
record button "I, saotome ranma of the prototype star ship   
p-chan, here by lay claim to any and all items found in the,   
what is now undenibly conclusive, remains of the planet that   
once moved between mars and jupiter. i claim it by right as   
the first person to have been here and not here under the   
power of any government or government agency. The p-chan   
and its records are property of saotome enterprises a   
independent company that achieved the act of star flight first   
and feel that it is my right to claim this place for   
company, at least then I know those damned neo resergance   
bastards won't get a chance to destroy it because it isn't   
in their holy book. Got that love?" 

After another day of careful navigating he stopped seeing a   
moving wall of rock "now thats got to be the scariest thing   
I've ever seen baby its like the worlds moving and its not   
stopping." he said worried as he coasted first up then down   
but found no exit "I think I may be in a dead end family   
mine." he said then jumped as a proximity sensor went off   
"what the fuck?! I got something moving right at me at at   
least eighty nots!" he exclaimed checking his rear sensors   
and turning on the camera and flood lights. He screamed   
uncontrolably seeing the thing moving owards him "it looks   
like a fucking shark!!" he yelled then after making a   
decision he gunned his engines right at the moving wall just   
as he revibrated a ki blast along his outer hull and blew a   
sizable chunk of the wall out. He coasted into it as the   
creature got to him and looked away as its head was sheared   
off "akane, baby please talk to me." he asked but got no   
answer. He cursed seeing that he was cut off from any   
comunication. He turned on all his lights and his world was   
knocked for a whirl. This was not a rock.   


He looked up and flipped on his internal recorders "ok, in   
case I do not survive this, I am going to crash the ship on   
mars and hope to god someone sees and comes to find me."   
He hit a few buttons and the screen flickered to show a   
bunch of shiny scaled creatures moving about the cavern   
floor as well as vehicals moving about on the ground and in   
the air "I think that moving wall I saw is some sort of   
alien ship, its monsterous in size, I've been over it for   
three days and haven't reached its end yet. ok heres the mind   
numbing scary part people, they breath oxygen, and they have   
the same heat and cold tolerances we have. There are   
billions of them in this thing... I think this is an   
invasion fleet trying to manuver around the closely grouped   
asteroid fragments. Akane, honey, please forgive me.   
Because I have a sinking feeling they're after earth, and   
I'm going to stop them, god help me, I'm going to try.   
And... I don't thing I'm going to get out of it alive baby,   
this ship, is three times the size of deimos, and god help   
us, loaded for bear. They are here for a sinister purpose,   
you don't pile that many people with that many vehicals with   
weapons grade exsplosives and other things my computer says   
doesn't exist into a ship this size just to say hello." 

He grinned as he flipped his recorder back on "I've done   
it! It took me four months but I tapped into their systems!   
My ships computer went mad for a few hours until I realized   
that their systems are running at light speeds while mine is   
simply walking. So I exited the ship and savaged one of the   
vehicals for its computer systems. damn things spotted me   
from the get go. The minute the ki pulsers were off they   
detected me. I had to stay lit up like a christmas tree to   
walk unnoticed and I got this damned bruise on my heal thats   
itching like you wouldn't believe. Its amazing, and   
terrifying. These beings are doing their own version of the   
americans manifest destiny. They think its there right to   
inhabit every oxygenated world in the galaxy just because   
they can overwelm the planets inhabitants. They love   
destroying what their computer calls the insects that live   
on the planets. What I find surprising, is that my computer   
broke their langauge matrix and decoded it so easy, something   
tells me this is the common lingo for the galaxy, a whole   
bunch of racial langauges mixed together. I think I have an   
idea on how to start combating these scumbags, but first I   
have to find a secure place I won't be found and start   
modifying my ship, akane I love you to death for making me   
learn all that stuff." 

Ranma hit a switch and this time the scene was outside "ok,   
I've adapted the recorder sensor so I can show you the new   
and Improved p-chan, I call it, the piglets revenge." he   
chuckled panning the view around the once tear drop shaped   
ship that had been the size of a school bus, to show the axe   
head like wings on its sides "I've increased the hulls   
structural systems and funny enough, the alien metal has a   
harmonics a lot sounder then ours for running ki blasts off   
of. This is a good thing, you will see. I've finally found   
the end of this acursed ship baby, its five miles long. And   
honey, when I blow it everyone on earth is going to see the   
roman candle I've made for you. If the ship is still on the   
other side of the asteroid barrier, like I pray it is, then   
hopefully none of the debris will reach you. I... can't be   
sure, but I think its been more then nine months. God I hate   
the fact I missed our childs birth love, was he a beautiful   
boy? Does he look like me? Do I need to haunt pop for even   
thinking of arranged marrages? God I miss you." he cut the   
camera off as he started crying. 

He grinned viciously as the camera came back on "alright I'm   
ready to go! I've rigged almost every major exsplosive they   
have to blow at the same time and the stupid shits don't   
even bother checking their systems! You won't believe it!   
I stole a main computer bank that hold scimatics for all of   
their war machines! Did ya know they have jump gate   
technology? That theory kazuki was working on is in   
operation here. I got a propulsions computer as well, it   
maps out the monster needed to run this thing. Your going   
to love me here baby, I get a corpse. I have it in cold   
freeze in the tiny cargo bay in the back of the ship. I   
told you I needed it! And without farther ado.... its time   
to get the fuck out of here." 

Ranma hit the recorder and flinched from an exsplosion "should   
have known they would miss that propulsions computer. I'm   
not hidden from their sight anymore, so I'm fluxuating my ki   
signature in between attacks, seems to create a double image   
on their sensors. So far they've missed me, oops! Got to   
go, my next target is a positional changing relay, allows   
this sucker to bend almost backwards to get between the   
rocks, you figure that one out. Give me a kiss for luck   
honey." he said then grinned as the ship spiraled to miss an   
incoming missle "this is my last target! Once I blow it the   
ships going to tear itself apart since its between a rock   
and a hard place, and over a barrel. I got to start the   
countdown and get out fast." he muttered coming to a dead   
stop and glowed bright white for a minute "phase cannon!"   
he roared as ki streamed out from the ship and he took off   
hitting his rear camera, the one that still worked of course   
"come on baby this is it! Don't wimp out on me now!" he   
called as the camera went white for a minute. A great   
screaming sound came from the whole ship as he sped past   
"reaching my exit point.. Now!"   


Ryoga sighed as he moved back from the outer frenges of the   
belt wall, having learned some months ago that the shark   
like things ate metals and were hard to kill "corps station   
this is p-chan two, I'm picking up a strange energy flux   
from the other side of the belt wall, looks like some kind   
of exsplosion... hold on, my computers picking up   
something..."   


Ranma gritted his teeth as he arrowed from between the rocks   
and winced hearing a wing get torn off and his lights   
flickered "this may be it baby, I hope I get out, not that   
it'll matter, the disolution of my leg continues, it'll   
reach my knee in a few weeks. Lets hit the switch and see   
whats playing." he said reaching to the switch he had   
redecorated in bright colors and heard static for a second   
"same old music, nothin good is ever..." he stopped hearing   
a voice in it and scanned deeper "... I repeat! If you   
can understand what I am saying please respond or I will be   
forced to fire on you when you exit the rock wall!" a voice   
said sternly. He hit his send button "a voice? One other   
then my own and the ghosts of memories of other people?   
Please tell me your not just another of my minds maddened   
efforts to stem some of my loneliness!" 

Ryoga jumped hearing the anguish in the voice "th- this is   
comander hibiki ryoga out survaying for... wreckage..   
Ranma... is that you?!" 

Ranma gasped "ryoga? Is it really you?! Fuck! Can't talk,   
a got a ball of fire riding my ass and I've lost my port   
side dorsal wing and the other is causing a drag. ryoga, if   
you can, GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!!!" he screamed as his   
proximity sensors registered his ship "ryoga I'm serious   
here! I'm riding just ahead of a shockwave thats going to   
blow a hole in the belt wall about the size of deimos! Run   
you fool!" he roared and nodded seeing his blip flip about   
"ranma, you better not be joking. I'm splitting, what about   
you?" he asked. Ranma chuckled "my jobs done my friend, I'm   
running off of left side thrusters and no verticals, I'm   
bouncing off of the rock walls as a way to turn me about,   
rather dizzying I admit. But its keeping me ahead of the   
exsplosion." he stopped "ryoga, I'm downloading my journal   
to you, it starts five.. Or is it three, days after I came   
across the alien invasion fleet. Ryoga, your not far enough   
away. Thats right aliens! One of those sharks ran me into   
the side of their mother ship and I only just got a viable   
escape route, as bad as it is. But I did it! I stopped   
them! I blew those alien bastards to kingdom come!!" he   
crowed and gasped as he sailed out into the clear nights sky   
and blinked seeing ryoga off his port side. He smiled at   
the shocked man "my course is plotted, don't bother trying   
to save me ryoga, save yourself first, I'm going to try to   
land as softly as I can on mars, mount olympus is in sight,   
now get the hell out of here." 

Ryoga looked up as his rear sensors screamed at him and he   
gunned his engines to the max seeing the wall of fire heading   
towards him. He took one last look at the severely damaged   
ship and blinked "ranma that damage is not done by hitting   
rocks! Thats blaster fire!" he protested. Ranma laughed at   
him "do you really think a couple rocks could do this to my   
little piglet?! Take my journal back to akane... I wonder   
if I'll bounce?" he murmured softly as his was pulled into   
mars gravity and the well of fire blocked off his view of   
him.   


Ranma jerked up and scrambed out of the bed clutching at his   
head as he cried out in pain. He slumped to his knees   
panting heavily, his body shaking hard "ranma!" a voice   
behind him exclaimed and he turned about to see a face he   
had dreamed of for so long he couldn't remember. He fell   
back om him heals and looked wide eyed as his strangely   
dressd wife slowly came towards the glass panel seperating   
them. He touched the glass and gasped seeing his fingers   
flow into it before jerking them back. He looked at akane   
scared out of his wits "akane... whats happened to me?" 

Ranma sat in the room meditating softly when the door to the   
lab opened. Kisumi and akane came back with another woman   
with stern eyes and a hair cut he remembered "nibiki?" he   
asked softly. She smirked nodding "I see you remember   
me. well! The hero of the first alien invasion has finally   
awakened!" she said walking to the glass partition "thanks   
to you, we humans were thrown into a thousand years of war   
with the raban race. System after system we incountered, they   
were there, and they all hated us." she said letting anger   
creap into her voice. Ranma blinked at her "but... they   
hated us anyways. They exterminate anything that isn't   
their own kind, when ever they meet it! I was trying to save   
us!" he yelled angry himself now. She nodded "your right of   
course, your journals and the computers you salvaged were   
invaluable to the on going war. They would have floored us   
within minutes when they came back seventy years later, if we   
hadn't taken your warning as gospel." she said anger still in   
her voice. He frowned at her 

"if I did so great why are you treating me like I killed   
your pet?" he growled crossing his arms. She smirked at   
him "oh do forgive me, I'm just a bitter old woman that saw   
far too much death and lost all of her family to the wars,   
you being the first casualty. Then akane quit life to join   
you in those damned cocoons, to wait until you could be   
healed. After your parents died in the first nano plague,   
my husband and your daughter were the next to go." she said   
viciously. Ranma looked ready to cry "l- siuki?" he   
whispered leaning back against the bulkhead. He closed his   
eyes as tears did fall. Akane touched the glass "ranma   
please, siuki was eighty and had three grand kids of her   
own by then." she whispered laying her head on the window.   
Ranma nodded still crying "and... did we have a son?" he   
said in a shaky voice. She smiled tears streaming down her   
face, she pulled out a holo projector from her pocket "I   
brought pictures." 

Ranma looked at the small boy portrayed on the glass after   
they had turned the light out and he choked back a sob "hes   
my son... that he is. I looked like that at five, hes   
wearing a gi?" he asked in a cracking voice. She nodded "we   
trained him to be as great as his father, and he was! Look,   
here he is about to enter the corps training center for   
combat pilot training. That badge on his shoulder is his   
membership badge for the church of the savior. He loved the   
fact that his father was the churches god, they have origenal   
copies of your journals, and most of our life history. They   
revered him because he looked so much like you, he was like   
you too. He had that same quick tongue and sharp wit. We   
gauged his fighting skill to be forty times what yours was   
when the third raban war started. He saved millions of   
lives with that same gung ho attitude you had. He pulled   
off the impossible many times, like you did." 

Ranma nodded laughing through his tears seeing the young,   
powerfully built lad hugging a graying ryoga who was   
rubbing his head "is ryoga still alive?" he asked softly.   
akane nodded "he heads the church of the savior... why   
didn't you ask if ranma, we gave him your name. Why not ask   
if hes still alive?" she asked. He looked at her "I know   
you akane, if he was still alive you wouldn't speak of him   
past tense.... how did he die?" 

She breathed shakily "it was called the three day war. No   
one got even a minutes sleep, let alone a chance to reload   
weapons. In the end three of our frigates and one of their   
comand ships survived. The frigates were dead, no way to   
get out in time to avoid the ship. Ranma... had fought non   
stop, never letting up on them. In the end he was out of   
everything, all he had left was his ship. That was all he   
needed. He said good bye to the frigate captain in the most   
cavalier voice anyone but you and him would make sound silly.   
You two made it sound heroic. He brought his ship upto top   
speed, and rammed the alien ships bridge. He died   
instantly, he didn't suffer."   


Ranma sat there looking at his hands for a full half hour   
before looking up at them "why am I in here?" he asked   
suddenly. They blinked at him "your under observation   
ranma. You were the first to be struck down by the nano   
plague, and so far your the only one thats beaten it." kisumi   
said smiling. Ranma blinked "you mean those things that   
were breaking me down on a molecular level." he said calmly.   
She nodded smiling "why yes! How did you know?" she asked.   
He looked at her "do you want to know why my son was so   
powerful?" he asked changing the subject. She smiled "we   
know ranma, his gene senquancing was more refined and   
missing all the genoms we call weak links." she explained.   
He nodded "do you know why? And don't tell me genetic   
engeneering, akane would never let that happen. Its because   
both of his parents were using extreme amounts of ki for a   
goodly portion of their life. I didn't realize that would   
happen until I had been forced to use my ki every minute of   
the day for six months, then things started happening to me.   
For one I could hold off the nanos to some exstent, the   
ship gained manuverability that defied the laws of nature...   
and I started merging things." 

He picked up the chair in the room and snapped its metal leg   
off like a twig. He brough it to the metal table and nelt   
down by it "I have the ability to merge two metals as if   
they had been molded that way." he murmured pressing the leg   
to the table and slowly ran his fingers through the metal   
before letting it go. He leaned on it "its stronger then   
any weld and makes the metal stronger the it normally was   
even in its best casting. I take it from the field that   
you can't get a blood sample from me. I've kind of grown   
attatched to my blood thankyou. I beat the nanobites by   
overwelming them, your rather stupid for not thinking of it.   
I beat them, but emitting an EM pulse powerful enough to   
kill them in one wave, the plagues didn't need to happen.   
they're fucking machines they built to clear away the excess   
skin from their hides. A strong EM pulse would have wiped   
them out. So don't you dare blame any of the deaths on me   
nibiki. I did good to save us from exstinction, I worked   
and I suffered for I don't know how long, until my plan came   
into effect. After that, nothing. I never got the big hero   
coming home party, I never got to see my wife again, my   
children are dead and I'm being held like some sort of   
quarantined rat when all I want to do is grieve with my   
wife." 

Nibiki smirked ugly "I'm so sorry ranma, but until we get   
that blood sample you can't be allowed to leave." she said   
letting her hate show. Akane glared at her "you can't do   
that nibiki!" she snarled. Nibiki smirked at her "oh can't   
I? You signed all your rights to everything you owned over   
to me when you went into that cocoon, akane dearest. You   
left me, you were the only family member I had left and you   
deserted me like the rest of them. As far as I'm concerned   
ranmas a lab specimen!" She snarled. Ranma stood up and   
looked calmly at her "you would stop me?" he asked. She   
nodded looking at him with naked hatred. He sighed   
touching the glass "then I have no choice but to destroy the   
station to free myself." 

Akane jumped as the three inch thick glass shattered as well   
as everything else in the room to reveal the field that the   
room had hid. He pushed his hand into it and it fried to a   
crisp. He took a step into the field and his leg followed.   
Even nibiki was taken aback by his apparent act of suicide   
and shut off the field. He stepped out and held up his   
blackened hand as the skin started to regrow itself so fast   
you could see the bones filling out and the muscles regrow "I   
reprogrammed the nano bites dear sister. They can be used   
to reconstruct any damaged body part or effect drastic   
changes almost instantly. Hince all the broken needles." 

Nibiki backed away "ya? And whats to stop then from   
infecting others and making them look like you?" she   
hissed. Ranma smiled opening his arms to akane and she   
gladly came into them. He kissed her hard for a few minutes   
"god I missed you." he whispered holding her tight. "As you   
can see nibiki, akane doesn't look a thing like me does   
she?" nibiki and kisumi backed away in horror as ranmas hand   
started to desolve into akanes and she moaned in pleasure   
"is.. It supposed to feel so good?" she asked. He nodded   
"yes. The nanos stimulate your body into its most efficient   
state, running at its peek condition. All the time. I can   
assure you that it is most curitive, if you have an ailment   
its wiped out. If you have a case of the raban plague our   
nanobites are stronger! A little discomfort is exspected   
since it is a war waged in your body." 

Nibikis eyes narrowed "should I even ask about containment?"   
she hissed reaching into her pocket. Ranma smirked at her   
as he stroked his hands down akanes back "nope, the nanos   
are transmited through a touch, they start editing out the   
harmful parts of the person their in three seconds later,   
kisumis hair is a example of these nanos. They are   
incapable of reconstructing a person by anything but their   
own genetic structure." 

nibiki backed away from kisumi seeing that he was right,   
kisumis hair was the deep rich brown they remembered. he   
smirked at her "whats your problem nibiki? your just as   
infected with it as we are, you can't tell me you haven't   
felt better in the last few hours then you have in a long   
time. the nanos are benefial, the rabans used them to   
forstall their deaths since they had the potential to live   
hundreds of years, the plates of skin covering their bodies   
got so large that soon enough they couldn't move after about   
a hundred years without the plates breaking their necks, after   
two years of sitting there the plates push so hard on   
their head that it either ripped it off or snaps it. from   
what i know, the nanos were a gift from a foolish race that   
visted them, also their first victims." 

nibiki nodded eying him thoughtfully "that fact wasn't known   
to us until three hundred years ago. what else do you know   
about them?" she asked musingly. he stopped kissing akane   
and looked at them "many things did i learn about them and   
many things did i put into my journals. look to them." he   
growled. she nodded thoughtfully "we have had to do that   
every now and then, you weren't too clear sometimes. like,   
what did you mean when you said their ship was moving around   
the rocks? we've found nothing that promotes that sort of   
thing." 

he stopped again and frowned in annoyance at her "do you   
mind?! it was a new technology! just stolen from a victim.   
it wasn't in their computers because it was exsperimental.   
must have scrapped it when their colony ship was ripped   
apart by the asteroid belt." she nodded frowning at him "so   
the technology is gone?" she asked, not very pleased with the   
idea. he shrugged "might be able to get a working model,   
don't know until i get some private time with my wife." he   
said deadpan making them blink, realizing just what akane   
was doing. they nodded smiling weakly "i'll show you to a   
room." kisumi murmured. nibiki nodded thinking hard "come   
and see me later, we have to talk about a few things."   


ranma walked into the office they were led to holding akanes   
hand smiling cheerfully. he blinked stopping in the doorway   
seeing ten men in dark red cloaks with large hoods that   
covered everything of their body, beside then sat six men   
and four women. ranma blinked for a minute before sitting in   
the chair he was directed to. nibiki cleared her throat "as   
you can see minaster, patient number one did indeed wake   
earlier today, as you well know." she said bitterly looking   
at the man behind the rather dressed up old man. he pursed   
his lips looking at ranma "he doesn't look like him." he   
grumped. ranma quarked an eye brow at him before sitting up   
and pulled something from the back of his chair by ripping it   
lose. he blinked at it as a few moved away shouting in fear   
"bomb!" a gaurd shouted. ranma blinked looking closer at it   
before pulling three wires from its top and tossed it on the   
table. he smiled at akane "don't you just love those   
'welcome home' gifts?" he asked smirking as it was quickly   
removed from the room. "how did you know that was there?!"   
one of the robed men exclaimed in shock. ranma blinked looking   
at him "the same way i know that those pressure suits your   
wearing won't stop the strain of nanobites the rabans are   
using, the old ones weren't viralent enough for them so now   
their making them so they cut away enough skin to allow for   
the type of movement they had when they were but forty years   
old." 

everyone gapped at him "h- how do you know that?!" nibiki   
exclaimed in a whisper. ranma smirked slightly "in a caccoon   
i was, deaf and blind i wasn't. being in this station, i was   
still able to find the closest raban signal post and listen in   
on their ideas." he looked at nibiki wih a frustrated smirk   
"you know, i put this in my journals, i left a refrence   
about how we could use normal radio transistors and decode   
their signals rather well. i was able to do that in the   
first month back on that ship. if i knew you wouldn't be   
able to understand them i would have carefully explained   
them." 

nibiki flashed her teeth at him "its not our fault you   
couldn't talk in speach patterns we recognized, if it wasn't   
you babbling about nonesense you were pining for your   
family." she spat. they blinked as four of the robed men   
jumped up "we will not allow you to disrespect the savior   
thus!!" one of them shouted. ranma sighed sitting back   
before looking around the room "can we please get on with   
this?! i would really like to visit my daughters grave   
sight." 

they looked at him for a minute not speaking "do you really   
think your the saotome ranma?" one of them said frowning   
in contempt. ranma arched an eye brow at him "yes, i really   
do." he said slowly, like he was talking to a child. the   
man glared angrily at him "i believe that all you are, is a   
clone miss tendo constructed from the cloning facility she   
has been working on lately." he said sharply. ranma blinked   
looking at nibiki "ok, its been eighteen hundred years since   
i was put in that thing and you still can't clone things?!   
they were working on that back in our time!" he said shaking   
his head. akane smirked "well, since the first raban war all   
the knowledge that wasn't stored in saotome or tendo corps   
manframes was destroyed, the rabans bombed the planet   
with large pulsar bombs, so if it wasn't in space or on   
paper then it was gone." 

ranma blinked "geez, they use it on you and you don't use it   
on them?!" he exclaimed softly before shaking his head   
"please forgive me... but you people are morons! was i   
speaking in tongues or something that you couldn't   
understand a word i said?! march tenth: 'i've figured it out,   
the things eating my leg are basically robots that they use   
to groom themselves, a strong EM pulse would cripple them in   
moments and free me from this plague, only problem is that i   
don't have anything here that can do it.' do you even   
partailly remember that?!?! the cure for the nano plagues   
was to bathe the victims in a strong electro magnetic   
pulse!! i'm not a scientest and yet i figured it out! why   
the fuck do you think i left all those messages about how i   
was looking forward to seeing my children!?! because i   
thought you were smart enough to help me once i got home!!"   
he snarled smashing the part of the table where he was and   
stalked away from it rubbing his face. akane walked over and   
hugged him "please ranma... your transmeter was damaged when   
you sent them to ryoga.... and your parents wouldn't let the   
ones taken from your flight computer get out saying that   
they belonged to them, saying it was all of you they had   
left. the full recordings weren't public knowledge for   
another thirty years, and.... they destroyed some parts of   
it." 

he nodded covering his face "great, perfect. i just.... i   
would have liked.... to have known my son." he said   
haltingly. she nodded hugging him. nibiki cleared her throat   
softly "hes not exactly in a very good mood, i mean, almost   
two thousand years have gone by and he exspected to be   
revived soon after being found." she murmured softly. ranma   
nodded looking back at them "i'll download the full journal   
files into a data cube later. just.... if their are any   
plague victims out there, just bomb them, the nanos are   
inert after being hit by a pulse of two point five eight   
gigahertz. all thats left is to let the system clean them   
out." 

ranma sighed looking out the window for a few minutes as   
the group watched them closely "are you really him?" one   
of the robed figures asked softly. ranma looked back at him   
"do you still get lost walking down the hall?" he asked and   
smirked slightly when he jumped. he shook his head "i got an   
implant..." he stood up and pulled the robe off to show a   
very gray ryoga wearing black. he popped the helm of his   
suit off and walked over to them, to the horror of the other   
suited men "is it you ranma?" he asked getting close "did   
you ever marry akari?" he asked softly. he shook his head   
sadly "no, she got tired of waiting for me. i married ukyo."   
ranma looked pleased "did she ever forgive me?" he laughed   
softly. he smiled slightly "only on her deathbed."   


ranma blinked looking around the space port their shuttle   
had landed in, ignoring all the floating cameras that   
were filming them "mr saotome!" a man in the lead yelled over   
the reporters babble. he blinked looking at him when he   
walked over to him "mr saotome, what is your response to the   
charge that your the one that provoked the rabans into   
attacking us? some of your detractors say that the rabans   
would have brought us peacefully into the galactic world if   
you hadn't attacked their ship." 

ranma tensed up and bored down on the man "don't you ever   
say what i did was wrong, the rabans were nothing but a   
swarm of galactic locusts that would have erased us from our   
home planet in days of being there! because of them and   
small minded fools, i'm visiting my family's grave instead of   
coming home to them!! the rabans were monsters then, their   
monsters now! they care nothing for those they have killed,   
all they want are planets they can use to ferther spread   
their filth across the universe. thats my response, and from   
what i hear, if it wasn't for my family, mankind would just   
be another name carved into their list of conqured races. i   
did what i had to do to save my family, i wasn't going to   
let some bug ruin us right when we got started." 

he blinked finding akane and ryouga trying to make him put   
the man down. he blushed setting him down and straitened his   
coat "i'm sorry... this is very hard for me to take right   
now." he looked down stepping back from the man. he took a   
few deep breaths and looked back out at the reporters "it   
shocked me how much of my warning never reached mankind. if   
it had, the nano plagues would never have started. there are   
so many things missing from my journals that i was horrified   
at how many lives could have been saved if only.... in a few   
weeks, the uncut files will be released for public viewing,   
to the temples and the governments. i have been told... that   
my parents had edited them for some reason, i would dearly   
like to know why, but that answer isn't forthcoming. all we   
can do, is make the best of the our situation." 

akane hugged him as they got out of the car and they walked   
alone up the hill to the grave sight they had had the family   
moved to after earth had been laid to waste. ranma nelt down   
and placed one of the roses he carried over his daughters   
grave, touching the headstone sadly "hi honey, i'm sorry....   
i'm sorry we never got to go.... to the park. i so much   
wanted to go, i'm so sorry..." he layed his head on the   
grass and cried softly, his shoulders shaking hard as akane   
held him tight. he sat back up and hugged her tight, pain   
making him tense "i don't know if i can do this.... i want   
this to be a nightmare and i'll wake up back in our room on   
the station. why the hell did they deny me my daughter!? my   
cure was in those journals and they destroyed it! they   
ruined my chances of being with my family! Damn them to   
hell!" 

akane held tight to him crying herself as she waited out his   
pain. he jumped up and looked around for a minute before   
running out into the field surrounding the graveyard and   
fell to his knees gripping his fists. akane gasped from the   
hill as ryoga joined her deeply worried about the ki around   
ranma "SHISHI HOKUDAN!!!" ranma roared and they dove away   
as the ground shook hard and hot air passed over them. when   
the rumble died down they looked up to find police crusers   
circling the pit. they gapped at the size of it before   
lunging past the officers who tried to stop them and ran   
down the hill to the smoking thing in the middle. ranma   
looked up at them from tear stained eyes and sniffed sitting   
back, his shirt ragged "do you feel better?" ryoga asked   
softly. ranma shook his head "my bunny is dead, all i'll   
ever know my son through is words and video. i'm far from   
being alright." he stood up shakily and let them lead him   
back up the hill they had gone down to get him "ranma,   
please, don't leave me, i want you to give me another   
child." she breathed holding him close. he looked at her and   
nodded resting his head against hers. "ryoga, i want to   
thank you, from what i hear, you were there for my son, when   
i couldn't be." 

ryoga smiled slightly "its the least i could do, your like a   
brother i wished like hell i had, and it killed me that you   
wouldn't know the man your son became. he loved you, you   
know. he loved you to death, one of his favorate places to   
be... was the stasis room where you were held, he said it was   
comforting to just sit with you. i do have something for   
you. ranma and i made it before he joined the space fleet."   


ranma blinked sitting in the chair ryoga motioned him to,   
his embarressment at having walked down the halls with   
pictures of him doing verious things as well as a statue in   
the middle of the main chaple of him holding his flight helm   
"ranma was feeling depressed when he came to see me so i   
talked him into making this to cheer him up." he murmured   
dropping a data cube into the viewer. ranma blinked sitting   
forward to look closely at the man smirking sardonically at   
the screen "so what is this supposed to be uncle?" he asked   
looking at ryoga who came on screen "well, one of these   
days, they're going to figure out how to cure your old man, so   
i figure, one of us might not be there to greet him." 

the man looked upset at that "ya right, if one of us is   
going to see him its you. no way am i going to turn into a   
bag of rinckles like you." he chuckled. ryoga growled   
threatening him with a hand "ya, just play along." he sat   
next to the man and smiled, a beard covering his face "hello   
ranma, knowing you, your going to thumb your nose at these   
fools that say you'll never wake up, and do just that. you   
used to love confounding those that thought they knew   
better. this is your son, ranma. we wish we could have   
woken you up, but they said you would spread what ever it is   
thats eating you to everyone else. so i guess we gotta   
wait for you to wake up." 

he poked the man and he looked annoyed but sighed thinking   
about it "i wish.... i wish i'd known you. everyones got   
something good to say about you, some fantastic thing you   
pulled off. i just wish you'd been able to save us from this   
war too. but hey! if you did, then how am i to be a hero!?"   
he said smirking in such a way that had ranma laughing   
haltingly "my dream, is to be like my pop, i'm going to   
single handedly end this war or die trying, like you. you   
ended the war before it began, thats something i don't think   
i could do, but you never know. i hope we met in the next   
life dad. i'd really love the chance to see if your really   
as great a martial artist they say you are." ranma shook his   
head clearing the tears from his eyes "and... i love you   
pop. its like i know you and yet i've never met you. but i   
know your with me, in here." he rubbed his chest "your in   
here, and i can feel you, everytime it seems i'm done for, i   
feel something pass over me and gives me the strength to do   
whats needed to win. i'll always be greatful for that." 

ranma sat there with his head in his hands for ten minutes   
before looking up at akane and ryoga "now i feel better." he   
whispered and pulled both of them close and hugged them   
greatfully "you don't know how much it helps that he was   
so loved." he kissed akane and smiled through his tears "how   
many times did you have to beat up pop before he gave up on   
the idea of training him?" he chuckled. she grinned "forty.   
then ryoga moved home and we told him he wouldn't be allowed   
near him if he didn't stop trying. its funny, ranma beat the   
shit out of genma when he disparged his skill by saying that   
i trained him. i was so proud of him. it was like watching   
you fight with the fool." 

he nodded smiling. before shaking his head "enough of this,   
i have a life to rebuild, its stupid to spend it morning for   
someone who had such a good life. so ryoga, mind helping a   
brother catch up on the past two thousand years?" he asked   
and smiled at the surprise on his face. he grabbed his head   
and pulled him close "you were like the brother i always   
wished had come with me on those trips with pop, maybe it   
wouldn't have been so bad for the both of us. so what do   
you say? will you be my brother?" ryoga blinked at him for   
a minute before hugging him tight and laughed softly "i'd   
love to! come this way! i got a history computer in here for   
the other temple servents children. it'll tell you   
everything you need to know."   


nibiki looked up and blinked at ranma and akane as they   
walked into the office with a troup of the temple gaurds   
behind them "what do you want?" she asked annoyed. she   
rubbed at her face "do you know how much shit i've had to   
handle because you desided to wake up?!" she demanded   
throwing her pin on the desk. ranma sat down and smirked   
"poor nibiki. you should be happy to know, we called a   
meeting of the board members of the saotome corps, you know,   
the one you didn't want to be bothered over?" he smirked   
seeing her shock, he nodded "they voted to return saotome   
corps back over to my wife and i. And you, you lucky duck,   
have been named president of the company. so you still run   
it, but you don't have the right to stop us from doing what   
we want." he sat back looking contented. she scowled at him   
"what do you want?" she hissed. he smirked "i want saotome   
corps relocated to a planet with little or no industrial   
worth, we'll keep all our factories and offices where they   
are, i just want to move the head office to the surface." 

she nodded slowly "why?" she asked annoyed. he smiled "i   
want saotome corps back in the business we started out in,   
space flight and exsploration. i want a devision opened up on   
the planet you choose, and it better be a good one, i don't   
want our child to be born on a station." he grumped. nibikis   
eyes widened and for the first time in the last four months   
she smiled in delight "your pregnant?!" she exclaimed   
happily. akane smiled nodding "very much so, ranmas nanos   
seem to have fixed that little problem." she murmured   
showing her her swelled belly. nibiki smiled happily coming   
around the desk and hugged her "kisumis going to go nuts   
when she hears this!" she exclaimed then smirked hugging   
ranma "congrats. i'll find a good one." 

he nodded smiling softly at her "and i want to be trained on   
the new fighters you got, i want to know them inside and   
out." she nodded smirking "i was going to ask you to look at   
them, we still can't figure out what you did to make the   
p-chan one do what you did." she smirked. ranma grinned "its   
all in the pilot sis."   
  



	3. dragons warning

dragons warning and a demons fun   
working title by   
imortis 

ranma blinked looking up and about as an almost soothing feeling of   
warm liquid slowly traveling down his face, almost like the feeling   
that blood had on those times when he'd gotten hurt. he blinked and   
hesetently rubbed his cheek, kind of paniced about looking. he   
blinked not seeing anything. ranma started to calm down when a   
slight sound coming in on the breeze that suddenly made him feel   
chilled and overheated at the same time, blinking at the anger and   
fear that he felt at the same time. 

he blinked and looked around at the school yard with hard, burning   
eyes. just then turning about, akane blinked up at him "hey, whats   
wrong?" she asked seeing that look he gets on his face when ever he   
suspects a cats near, except it had a fury in it she'd never seen   
before. ranma startled severely out of his searching when akane   
clapped her hands sharply in his face "hey!! can you hear me!?" she   
shouted trying to get his attention. he scowled at her "whatcha   
distract me for?!" he yelled indignently. she snorted looking away   
haughtily "well, i guess for now on i'll let you stare off into   
nothing with that stupid as dirt look on your face." she sniffed   
marching out of the school yard. 

ranma grumbled under his breath as he stalked after her, after   
scanning the yard again, he shivered again rememering that....   
chuckle... with a very uneasy feeling down his spin, a feeling he   
hadn't felt since...... "hey akane! wait up!!"   


ranma hurried into the house when they got home and brushed everyone   
off as he quickly walked upstairs, catching the attention of three   
people with that almost fearful look on his face. genmas eyes narrowed   
as he descretely followed after him, nodoka looked suspiciously at   
akane and saw the same questioning look on her face, they nodded   
slightly and silently followed. they crept to the door and blinked   
hearing the sound of something being tossed at the floor "i'm not   
imagining it pop.....its that feeling i got...." ranmas voice shook   
with sepressed terror. 

"your mistaken boy, its impossible, we left him dead long ago, your   
just letting your fear control you." genma growled sharply. they   
looked wide eyed at each other hearing ranma breathing deeply "you   
don't know that pop. and it wasn't just my fear, I FELT HIM. i could   
practically taste the blood in my mouth pop, i could feel the   
excitement..." they gapped hearing the sound of genma grabbing him   
"shut up! you listen good boy, that was not you. he used you! it was   
not you doing it. hes DEAD!!" 

ranma pushed him away "you don't know that!" ranma half roared   
through his teeth in fear and panic driven frustration "we don't   
know hes dead pop. hes going to come, hes going to come and hes   
going to make me kill again. i felt it. i could almost hear.... that   
laugh...." genma grabbed his sobbing son and shook him "you stop   
this! don't ever speak of this again! it was a hard time for both of   
us, but its over and done with! you saw the same as i did! master   
roshi helped you kill him! its over! i will not hear of you speaking   
of this again!" 

ranma nodded shakily after a few minutes to gain control of himself   
"h- hai..... pop. i'll..... go do my..... workout." he said   
haltingly and genma let him go "good, be sure no one knows of this,   
your mother would surely kill us both if she heard of it." he watched   
him grimly starting his mental strengthening excersises "why, why is   
mom so unforgiving?" he asked softly. genma sighed "your mothers a   
very close minded person boy, i was extremely surprised she excepted   
your curse, i felt for sure we were dead." 

ranma looked troubled "i don't know pop.... moms not that close   
minded, are you sure? if we explaine-" ranma was cut off and they   
heard a slapping sound "listen to me good, boy, you will never dare   
tell your mother. which one of us knows her better? you, or me? your   
mother would hate you if she ever found out." ranma stopped looking   
down fighting the tears that idea welled up in him "....ok.... i'll   
stay silent." he whispered softly meek. genma nodded uncrossing his   
arms "what happened was horrible and people like your mother would   
think it was best to hunt you down if they knew. its better to just   
keep your distance from her, lest she see your taint." 

ranma snarled feeling angry "my taint?!? you did it to me!! i was   
six pop! you did it to me! you let him take me!" he yelled bitterly.   
genma snorted "its your own fault boy! if you had been a man and not   
a weak litle coward you would have been able to over come any   
obstical." he growled back. ranma growled back stopping "thats   
bullshit pop. that 'its your fault for being too weak' shit don't   
cut it anymore with me. i've talked to people, the only truth is   
that you took a six year old boy and fed him to that damned demon.   
its all your fault, its your fault he made me kill twenty three   
people!" 

the two looked up hearing the sound of something hitting the floor   
and genma jumped checking the door for anyone. he sighed in relief   
not finding anyone. he looked back at ranma and scowled at him "if   
you bring this subject up again, i'll have you training in the catfist   
so long you'll think he was being nice."   


in nibikis room nodoka had her hand clasped over her mouth crying   
hard, she hadn't moved since nibiki pulled the two in there after   
akane face faulted. "did you hear that!?" akane hissed angrily   
having heard the last of it. nodoka nodded shakily "my son... is a   
murderer." she said heartbroken. they blinked "no, did you hear what   
genma said?" she growled. nodoka shook her head and it was played   
back to her "whats the catfist?" 

nibiki snapped her fingers when akanes explanation made the woman   
start cursing softly "listen, ranmas talking to himself." she   
whispered unplugging her headphones. "-couldn't i be normal? i hate   
him so much, please save me. i don't know why you torture me so, i   
want my mother." he cried softly. he sniffed "i just want to go back   
home to mom, why can't you let me go..... you've made everyone hate   
me. what did i do to you?" 

nibiki started to turn it off when she hear something, she turned up   
the gain on her recorder and listened carefully "it pleases me that   
you suffer." they all jumped hearing it, blinking at the high   
pitched shreek it made. "haven't i suffered enough?" he whimpered.   
all he got was a giggle that sounded like glass grinding against   
torn metal. "i won't let you take me back, you can go back to what   
ever hell pop took you from, i'm not going to kill again." this time   
the giggle was louder "you have no choice, your father gave your   
soul to me, you belong to me and as long as you resist me, your pain   
will grow." 

she turned the volume down quickly hearing the thundering of ranma   
opening his window. they looked horrified at each other "what... do   
we... do?" nodoka freaked sobbingly, hearing her sons sobs tore at   
her heart. nibiki looked angrily at the door for a minute "i don't   
know." she finally said shortly, if something supernatural happened   
they went to ranma. "poor ranma." akane whispered fighting her   
tears. nodoka hugged her for comfort. nibiki looked thoughtful for a   
minute "theres only two people i know that could help us with this   
sort of thing. but i don't trust either of them." 

nibiki looked up a half hour later as cologne appeared in her window   
silently. "did ranma see you?" she asked softly. she shook her head   
eying nodoka and akane hanging on each other, both of them crying now   
"what has happened nibiki?" she asked grimly. nibiki handed her the   
headphones and she took them silently. nibiki watched her face go   
from curious to shock to horror and anger. she nodded when she   
jerked after a few minutes and took the headphones off. she blinked   
a few times hiding the tear that tried to come "i will need to   
research this, bring the boy by the restaurant tomarrow, i'll have   
something by then."   


ranma looked up from the bento in his hands to blink in surprise at   
his mother and the two tendo sisters, losing the lost and despairing   
look he'd worn all day. "... hey, is lunch over?" he asked softly.   
they blinked at him worriedly "ranma... schools been out for the   
last hour and a half." akane murmured nealing by him. he blinked at   
her uncomprehendingly "lets go, we're going to go see cologne, she   
said she had something interesting to tell auntie and i don't think   
she should go alone." 

ranma blinked for a minute before understanding entered his eyes   
"cologne? ya... lets go." he stood up and looked curiously at the   
way nodoka was looking at him "is something wrong mom?" he asked   
nerviously."no dear. i was just thinking..... we really need to sit   
down and.... talk. here you are, and i don't know anything about   
you." 

ranma looked away from her hiding the dread and hope on his   
face "theres... not much to tell." he said meekly. nodoka   
took ahold of his arm and cupped his face in her hands "i   
told you, before genma took you from me, that no matter what   
he did.... i'd always love you. no matter what." she   
whispered softly stroking her thumbs down his cheeks. ranmas   
mouth quivered softly "i..... i can't." he whimpered   
softly. she looked pleading "why can't you? maybe we can   
find someone who can help." she begged quietly. ranma   
blinked at the tears in his eyes "pop made me promise never   
to tell." 

she looked angry "ranma, theres something my father told me   
which i didn't want to believe at the time." she bit her   
lip "he told me, that men, that live without honor, do not   
have the right to demand an oath from anyone, that those   
with honor are honorbound to ignore such oaths if they do   
not want to lose what honor they had." she looked down   
biting her lip "father stopped talking to me after genma   
took you, he said i'd disgraced myself for letting him   
bully me into agreeing to the oath. i.... i was in love, i   
thought genma loved us. i didn't want to believe that he   
would hurt you. please, please tell me, did he hurt you? i   
need to know." 

ranma opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out. he   
blinked for a minute before trying again. he looked confused   
"i can't." he murmured confused. she looked worried "come,   
lets go see what cologne has for us." 

ranma looked around the nekohanten for a minute before   
moving back scared from the things on the floor "you can't!"   
he shouted recognizing the demon wards "we're trying to   
help you boy!" cologne said moving close. ranma shook his   
head "no! if you do this you'll he-" he voice cut off and   
he stomped his foot in frustration "somethings keeping him   
from speaking cologne-san." nodoka murmured. cologne looked   
interested in the worry and fear on ranmas face as he edged   
away from the magical tools. 

"you think its bad that we do this?" she asked. he nodded   
quickly opening his mouth but nothing came out. he glared at   
the floor for a moment "is like a box, while the box is   
closed the d- if you open it h- its better to leave it   
alone!" he finished looking angry. cologne glared narrow   
eyed at him "your saying its not a possession?" she   
demanded. ranma nodded and shook his head then looked   
pissed "it won't let me say!" 

she nodded "its trying to hide something." she mused.   
ranma nodded looking pleading. she nodded pointing to a chair   
"sit there boy." she comanded. he did as he was told. nodoka   
took his hand and he smiled slightly at her as cologne came   
back "drink this, it might help." she said. ranma nodded   
looking at akane and his mother for assurances before doing   
it. he jerked in pain grabbing his head gasping through   
gritted teeth before sitting up strait "i take it the demon   
no longer controls your voice?" she asked. he nodded "the   
demon is very angry." he agreed. she nodded "tell me where   
it came from." she demanded. ranma blinked and his eyes   
dialated "i was six, pop had gotten a few pages from a book   
of a man that was dead when we came to visit him, pop said   
he would make me strong. the place had been desimated.   
pop... took the pages from a book that had been badly   
burned, it was sitting inside a circle of ashe along with   
charred bones and some other things, i couldn't tell, pop   
dragged me away before i could see much. we went to kyoto   
and pop started looking for a place, he said that he didn't   
want anyone to desturb us. he dug a p- pit, in this clearing   
in the forest, he had me, steal every cat i could find, said   
it was training so i had to do a good job." 

akane gasped "the catfist?" she whispered. ranma nodded   
"after letting the cats starve a few days he rubbed me down   
with fish cakes and tied a few of them to me. after that   
he.... dropped me in the pit." he shivered slightly as sweat   
popped up on his brow "the fear must be strong to resist   
that potion." cologne murmured as nodoka washed his face off   
worriedly "it.... he pulled me out.... after seven hours.   
he.... seemed pleased with my condition, like thats how he   
intended for it to happen. he gave me a few days to let   
my fear settle a little before tying me up, put me back in   
the pit." 

akane hugged nodoka seeing the horror on her face "he... did   
it to hurt him!" she breathed. cologne snarled softly "go   
on!" she comanded. ranma twitched slightly "it took three   
months of dropping me in the pit for what he was after   
finally came. i felt.... this warmth, and a voice that drove   
the pain away, it.... laughed at me. the next thing i know,   
i'm staring at pop who was shouting angrily at me,   
saying.... 'i... summoned you..... give me whats.... mine.'   
i.... didn't know why he was yelling at me until i heard   
this voice, it wasn't mine." he squeezed his eyes closed in   
pain and cologne smacked him in the head with her staff   
"quickly, the demon is reaserting itself." she said and   
helping hands opened his mouth and more of the stuff poured   
down his mouth. 

ranma breathed deeply looking lifeless "you offered this boy   
as payment for my gift." he said in an almost shreeking   
voice. they moved back slightly "fool, i shall keep the boy   
and thankyou for freeing me." cologne smacked him in the   
head and he blinked at her "for the next ten days.... it was   
like a nightmare, i'd... get flashes... of terror filled   
faces and blood, then, after a while, i got this image....   
and master roshi started urging me to fight. he helped me   
push the demon out of my mind, but... it was too powerful to   
kill. he said it would take twelve years to prepare the   
weapon needed to slay the demon. pop was with him, he...   
offered me as a prison for the demon, saying that he would   
make sure the demon stayed contained inside me until roshi   
could come for us. for the next year, pop would beat me for   
almost no reason, i had to hunt rabbits to keep from   
starving, he blamed me for what happened, saying it was my   
fault and that he would kill me if i ever tried to tell mom.   
after ucchan... pop started training me in the art, he   
didn't want to return to mom without something to hide   
behind. i hate him, i wish he'd die." 

they looked at him in horror seeing the pain and rage that   
writhed over his face, he started shaking hard "he's   
breaking free." cologne murmured and quickly hit a pressure   
point on his head, ranma crumpled into unconsciousness and   
fell to the floor. cologne looked at the boy for a few   
minutes befor humming interestedly "i wonder who this   
mastrer roshi is?" she mused. akane blinked "i don't know,   
ranma spoke the name like he would say girl or dog." cologne   
blinked intregued "you think he literally meant dragon?" she   
asked. akane nodded "do you know anything that could do   
that?" she asked. cologne nodded "i take your point. lets   
get this cleared away before he wakes, he won't remember   
anything past entering the room, the importent part is that   
neither will the demon."   


ranma woke up and groaned touching his head "damn! did akane   
hit me again?!" he hissed sitting up and blanched at all of   
them staring at him "what?! what i do?!" he asked moving   
back nerviously. nodoka cleared her throat "you passed out   
son, are you alright? you worried us." she murmured. he   
blinked at her for a moment and fear washed over his face   
"i... passed out? did i.... do anything?" he asked softly.   
they shook their heads "no, but you did keep moaning a   
name." akane murmured, ignoring the cautionary looks the two   
older woman shot at her "what?!" he asked dreading her   
answer. she blinked "you kept saying master roshi." she said   
worried. ranma looked relieved "just... roshi?" he asked   
relaxing. she nodded "who was roshi?" she asked. he blinked   
for a minute before shaking his head "i don't remmber much   
more then that he helped me when i was young. i think he   
lived in.... i think it was a forest forty miles south of   
kyoto." he murmured thinking hard. 

cologne looked at the two women for a second before looking at ranma   
critically and nodded "boy, i think its time you proved your   
worth again." she darted forward and tapped more then a few pressure   
points on his chest and ranma cried out falling to the floor as his   
knees weakened "wh- what the hell did you do to me?!?" he demanded   
trying to stand up. she grinned at him "its a weaker version of the   
pressure point happosai used to steal your strength. you have to beat   
me to get the cure." she said challangingly. he jumped up snarling   
and fell back down not being able to support himself. cologne   
cackled "oh did i forget to tell you? the only way you could beat me   
in your current state is to learn to use your chi in ways you   
wouldn't think possible." she chuckled handing akane a small scroll   
"you, take the boy home, and do not let genma see that scroll. i do   
not trust that man with this sort of thing." after she had shoed the   
two from the store she looked at nodoka "we'd best get him to kyoto   
and find this roshi, and it would be for the best if genma did not   
know about this, i'll figure out how to get rid of him." 

nodoka looked at her curiously "why are you doing this for us?" she   
asked softly. cologne looked at her "i realized a long time ago that   
that boy was not meant for shampoo, he's wrong for some one like her,   
and after finding out what genma did to him i want him away from   
shampoo even more. but i will not just blow off the skill and   
potential he has. i would not be happy to waste all the time on him   
that i have without seeing my patence carry through." nodoka looked   
at her blinking repeatedly "i thank you for everything you've done   
for my son, he has said on more then one occation that he would have   
fallen to one of his enemies long ago if you hadn't started training   
him." cologne blinked at her interested and she nodded smiling as   
she left "he respects you as his teacher and better, even if he   
won't say it to your face." 

cologne chuckled nodding "i understand." she said nodding as the   
woman left. after she was sure she was gone she looked at the duck   
sitting silently in the cage behind the counter "i would know what   
you think about this mou tzu." she said in chinese. he quacked   
hurrying from the room after she had released him and came back   
quickly after dressing "i did not think saotome genma could be that   
evil." he said softly looking at the ground "the tzu famiy has long   
hunted demon kind, can we trust that we heard?" she asked. he nodded   
slowly "the two believe it with all their heart, and from what i   
could tell, ranma doesn't realize he isn't telling us something.   
something importent." she nodded looking thoughtful "do you know how   
to track roshi?" she asked curiously. he blinked surprised and   
nodded after a minute "i've spoken with one before if thats what you   
mean. grandmother took me to see one once, i could track one." 

she nodded "go pack a bag, i want you to return home and gather   
what you may need in case we must kill the demon ourselves." she   
comanded. he nodded standing firm "does this mean we will be giving   
up on ranma?" he asked softly. she nodded "of course, you know the   
law as i on consorting with the lower creatures." she said. he   
nodded "they say kill any that had anything to do with it." he   
agreed. cologne nodded "yes, but we're going to try to save ranma,   
he has already shown himself as a valueable ally to have, just not   
in the tribe." he nodded looking thoughtful "and if we can't?" he   
asked. she looked grim "then i shall kill him."   


nodoka blinked in surprise hearing yelling from inside the house   
and ran in worried. "i said get up boy!!" genma yelled angrily at   
him from his position over the prone boy laying where genma had   
knocked him. nodoka scowled at him but before she could do anything   
akane pounded genma into the floor with her mallet. she snarled at   
the unconscious man before helping ranma stand and walked him to   
the couch "akane! what is the meaning of this?!" soun demanded   
upset. akane frowned at him "ranma does not need this dad. cologne   
ambushed him on the way home and challanged him again. she showed   
him a technique that would allow him to over come this but warned   
that it would take a few weeks." soun looked wide eyed "oh, well   
then, i guess you were just trying to help your fiance." he said   
pleased. akane grimaced not saying a thing. 

nodoka looked at soun with a scowl making him shutter looking away.   
nodoka frowned looking at genma on the floor for a minute before   
making a decision she turned and marched from the room "where are   
you going auntie?" kisumi asked. she looked at her before forcing a   
smile "i need to get home for a while kisumi, i'll be back   
tommarrow." she said normally. she smiled nodding and left her   
alone. nodoka shouldered her sword and marched from the house. after   
a few blocks she stopped and called a cab. she nodded to the driver   
when she got in "take me to the train terminal."   


ranma grumbled softly to himself as akane helped him climb the   
stairs and slumped onto his futon with bitter anger on his face   
"stupid old man, shoulda known he'd do this, did it last time!" he   
snarled slumping back into the mattress. akane came over and helped   
him sit back up and rubbed his shoulders "don't worry about that   
ranma, i'll make him regret it if he doesn't leave you alone, and   
auntie is very willing to hurt him if he doesn't leave you alone."   
she soothed holding him up as she took out the scroll cologne had   
given them. ranma blinked at her and blushed slightly looking down   
"wh- why are... you being so nice?" he asked softly. 

::ranma and akane scene here, ranma learning to let akane assist   
him in normal things.::   


nodoka looked at the gate before her with not a little trepidation, she   
closed her eyes for a minute before ringing the bell. after a minute   
a man she knew well during childhood answered the door. he blinked   
at her for a minute before moving to shut it. "no!" she cried   
putting her arm in the way showing him her sword hilt "i would   
speak with my father. on the honor of the family i demand to see   
him!" he hesitated for a second, a pained look crossing his face   
and she looked pleading "please, i need to speak with him." she said   
desperate. he frowned trying to hide the worry the look on her face   
made him feel. he nodded shortly "on our family honor. i can not   
deny you." 

nodoka looked around the large study he took her to ringing her   
hands as she paced. she looked up as the door opened and her mother   
walked in looking grim. nodoka looked upset "wheres father?! i need   
to see him!" she said worried. her mother frowned at her not   
saying anything for a few minutes "he has sent me to deal with you."   
she said quietly. nodoka looked heartbroken "i need to see him   
mother. i need his help." she pleaded holding out her hands. the   
woman snorted "you know as well as i do what he said would happen if   
you gave into that man, he can not go back on his word." she said   
grimly. nodoka gripped her hands "i don't care mother! i have to see   
him!" she said desperately. she walked over and took her hands   
"please, i can't do this myself!" she cried holding tight. she   
looked worried touching her face "what is it child?" she asked   
softly. nodoka shook her head "father has to hear it mother. i need   
his help if i'm to save ranma." 

she looked wide eyed before rage filled them "what?! what did   
tha man do?!?!" she snarled. she shook her head "please take me to   
father, i need to tell both of you this." she looked at her sternly   
for a minute before nodding and led her down the hall and up a   
staircase. the man in the room looked up from his brooding at the   
window when the door opened "so what did she-" he broke off when his   
wife led nodoka into the room. nodoka waited until her mother sat   
next to her father before getting on her knees and lowered her head   
to the floor, both of them looked upset at that "i beg you father, i   
beg you to help me be free of the man i no longer know. please free   
me from this marrage, help me save my son." she pleaded not looking   
up. both of them looked angry and the man jumped up "get up off that   
floor this instant! you are not a patitioner!!" he shouted angrily.   
she didn't move "did you not hear him!?!" her mother shouted. "i   
heard you. i just can not. you warned me not to trust that man and i   
foolishly ignored the things i did not want to see because i was in   
love. i couldn't refuse him what he wanted and you cast me out   
because of it." she looked up at them "i have no right to come to   
you, but there was no one else i could go to. you were right father,   
you said genma would harm my son, you said he did not deserve to   
have me. you were right. you can turn me away father, but i beg you,   
if you do, all hope i hold of saving my son is lost." 

both looked worried and her father gruffly pulled her to her feet   
"what is this you say!?" he demanded. nodoka sniffed, she had been   
crying "i didn't want to see him in truth, the love i felt blinded   
me to what he was. two days ago i found out something he had done to   
ranma that made me come to you." she reached into her pocket with a   
shaking hand and pulled out two tapes she had, nibiki having made   
the first for her and the other she had gotten from the tape   
recorder she had taken with her when she had taken ranma to cologne   
"you can not hear me because i am nothing to you, but these will   
tell you. the first one is of genma and ranma talking." she said   
handing it to him. he scowled at her for a minute before walking   
over to the wall and opened a cabenet with a wide array of eletronic   
devices on it "you will need to turn up the volume on the last part   
to understand the horror of it." she said softly as he started it.   
she stood still listening to the first part with her eyes closed   
before flinching from the horrible voice as both her parents gasped   
in shock. when it was over she was sobbing softly to herself. after   
a minute she calmed enough to hold up the other tape "this... this   
is a recording i took yesterday after we took ranma to a chinese   
mystic that he had been training under, refusing to accept genmas   
master as a teacher." 

nodoka slumped to her knees as they started the second one and   
covered her ears not wanting to hear the voice even though it got   
through to her. after it was over she didn't look up for a few   
minutes until she heard one of them come towards her. she looked up   
at her father "i-" he shook his head not being able to speak just   
yet "ranma can be saved father, but i can't do anything to stop   
genma unless you help me!" she pleaded. he pulled her up off the   
floor and pulled her into his arms for a fierce hug, shaking almost   
as much as she was "i- i forgive you.... daughter." he cried softly.   
nodoka cried out softly clutching at him tightly "daddy!" she sobbed   
feeling her mother hug her from behind "i will kill that man myself   
for daring to do this to you." he said letting her go. nodoka   
laughed in relief through her tears "oh thankyou father!" she cried   
hugging him again. he let her go after a minute before pulling her   
to the chair and sat her down "what is this thing that the old woman   
plans on doing?" he asked. she sniffed trying to clean up her face   
"its been her way to challange ranma to battles as a way to train   
him, she would do things to him that would make him try hard and   
give him a new technique to master before she would free him from   
what she did. its kept ranma alive so far." 

her mother looked worried "is genma trying to kill him?" she asked   
worried. she shook her head "no. it seems that genma made a lot of   
enemies while he had my son and ranma was forced to defeat them to   
keep them from harming everyone. and i can't get ranma to tell me   
anything!" she looked frustrated "genmas told him since he took him   
that i would kill him if he talked!" she pulled out a peice of paper   
and handed it to her father "genma signed this contract when i   
forced him to before he took ranma, i told him i would kill him if   
he hurt ranma at all and for some reason ranma thinks i would kill   
him too!" her fathers brows furrowed "this is rather ambigious dear,   
what exactly did you mean man amongst men?" he asked. nodoka blushed   
"it meant that if i found out he had hurt him in any way i would   
force seppuku on him. well... you really, i didn't think i could so   
planned on asking you to do it." 

he blinked at her in surprise "you planned to have me carry this   
out?? honey, you must have realized i wanted him gone! i wouldn't   
care if ranma was a paragon of manliness, i would have done it." he   
protested. nodoka nodded "i know. i'm not that much of a fool, i   
love my son more then i can say, if your fears were true i would   
have gladly turned it over to you. except he never came back, he   
never planned on giving ranma back to me daddy, i still wouldn't   
know where they were if i hadn't visited the tendos regularly! genma   
had been forcing ranma to hide from me!" she shouted angrily. both   
of them looked angry "you were more then right about him father, no   
one will tell me much, but he put my son through hell for his own   
ends! that little thing he used to call the demon is called the   
catfist, you heard him, he still threatens him with it!" 

both looked grim "when shall we do this?" her mother asked. nodoka   
looked exstatic "as soon as possible, you should have seen it! i   
wasn't in the door more then a second before i heard genma   
tormenting my son! the amazon elder crippled ranmas fighting   
strength in order to teach him something new and genma was standing   
over ranma yelling at him for letting her do it! thankfully ranmas   
fiancee made him stop." both looked at each other for a minute   
before glaring "how about we visit them?" he suggested grimly. his   
wife sat firm "tommarrow, i haven't seen my daughter in eighteen   
years because of that horrid man and i want to get to know her   
again." 

he nodded smiling slightly "of course, your brother and sister will   
be wanting to see you too." nodoka started crying again in relief.   


nodoka smiled hurrying over to her brother when he walked into the   
room and hugged him tight "i missed you!" she squeeled holding him   
happily. he smiled "i had heard that dad had forgiven you, so,   
wheres your son? i figured you would bring him." he said looking at   
her happily. she lost the happy look "ranma can't stand right now   
brother, last i saw him he had to be guided about the room to keep   
from falling." he looked horrified along with the woman that had   
just come in with someone else. "whats happened?!" her sister   
noriko exclaimed hurrying over. nodoka started to answer when she   
got a look at the boy that had come with her "you look just like   
ranma!" she exclaimed walking over. she smiled looking him up and   
down "the hair and the clothes are the only difference!" she   
marveled. she smiled "this is my son kanada." noriko said before   
grabbing her "what happened to ranma?!" she demanded. she blinked   
"oh, don't worry, his sensei purposefully did it, shes training him   
in a martial arts form that makes the person rely on something other   
then physical strength. to do that she stole away his power and gave   
him a scroll that would teach him how to over come the obstical." 

both looked shocked "you let someone do that to your son?" jiro said   
looking agast. nodoka looked grim "its either this or the next enemy   
to show up kills him!" she said more harshly then she intended. she   
smiled in apology "i'm sorry sis, its just that ranmas in constent   
danger because of all the things that.... man!... did to him. daddy's   
going to judge him for me, i can't think of a punishment harsh enough   
for what he did to my son." they hugged her looking horrified "is he   
ok?" she asked softly. she smiled at them "thats the thing sis,   
ranmas an amazing person! he's one of the greatest martial artists   
in japan right now! not five months ago ranma was forced to go to   
china to rescue his fiancee who had been kidnapped by these strange   
people in a remote provence. they say the man ranma fought was an   
honest to goodness god! ranma was forced to kill him to save akane." 

she sighed "ranmas been through hell because of genma, and its a   
testement to my sons strength that he survived it as well as he   
did." her sister smiled "it must have been tough." she murmured then   
pulled her son over "this is kanada. he's only sixteen and already   
he's in his third year of collage." she said proud. nodoka looked   
pleased "oh thats wonderful! do you think you could help my son? his   
grades are terrible." she said grimacing. he smiled slightly "i   
wouldn't mind meeting him if what you say is true." he said   
politely. nodoka smiled "ranmas a very unique person, i can safely   
say theres no one anywhere thats as unique as he is." she said   
ruefully. her mother snorted sitting down "you mean other then the   
fact that he holds a demon prisoner inside his body?" she chidded   
softly. nodoka scowled darkly "it isn't his choice mother." she said   
softly. she nodded hugging her "i'm not saying it is, that man   
saddled him with it and he is forced to contain it." she said   
soothingly. they looked at the three statues "he has a demon inside   
him?" kanada said dumbly. nodoka nodded looking about to cry "its a   
constent torment to him, but theres nothing else he could do, if it   
got loose it would possess him and go on a rampage, ranmas forced to   
suffer under the things cruel treatment because he can't let it   
loose." 

kanada grinned wider "now i really want to meet him. i should talk to   
dr fochoki about this." he mused softly. his grandmother nodded   
quickly "yes! the demonologist! he might know of a way to fix   
this." she said pleased. nodoka bit her lip "is it right to tamper   
with it? ranma barely holds the thing at bay." she said worried.   
"it must hurt a lot." he murmured wincing. nodoka looked worried   
"it hurts?" she asked. he nodded "all the books on it i've read say   
that its an agony all its own." she looked even more worried   
"it is?!" she exclaimed. he nodded "the cases that have been   
documented tell of the person it happened to having to be   
locked away to keep from gouging out hunks of his skin, they   
kept fixating on the feeling of blood covering their bodies." 

nodoka looked pale "thats what ranma said..." she murmured softly.   
her mother hugged her "what are the other things that happen   
kanada?" she asked. he looked pained "some of its not for polite   
company." he demured making nodoka twitch for a minute "the thing   
is, we think we know of a way to free ranma from this thing, the   
only problem is.... we don't even know if it still lives." she   
murmured. her mother nodded "you mean the roshi." she murmured   
stroking her hair. nodoka nodded "genmas the only one who knows for   
sure where the dragon might be and i wouldn't trust him to not try   
to stop us if he found out." jiro frowned deeply at her "what do   
you plan to do about this man?" he asked sharply. their mother   
smiled "your father is going to acompany us back to the dojo in the   
morning and deal with him there." 

he nodded satisfied with her response sitting back "good, what kind   
of help will you be needing father?" he asked the man who had just   
come back into the room. he smirked at him "we're going to do this   
formally, we will capture him and take him here, no need to be rude   
to the tendos by forcing them to see what we will do. i will take   
great pleasure in paying that man back for taking your sister and   
her son from us."   
  
  



	4. after-effects

Ranma winced again as hopping off the fence hurt his  
damaged rib. He valiantly fought to hide the signs of his  
weakened condition, but it was getting harder and harder  
these days to win his fights. He had even start heading them  
off before they became fights, he had flat out avoided  
cologne and happosai.  
  
Akane looked at ranma and blinked wondering why he was so  
pale "are you alright ranma?" she asked. Ranma smirked at  
her "why wouldn't I be?"  
  
She frowned at him but let it drop as they neared the  
school, the boys had started mobbing them again after the  
wedding fiasco and all her old anger was coming back, ranma  
moved ahead of her and started glowing slightly, distancing  
himself from her.  
  
"I'm going to warn you one last time assholes! This stops  
or your going to be more then hurt!" he shouted as he  
stopped at the gate a ki blast forming in his hands. He  
held it up and they bolted in fright as it shot out and  
slammed into kuno who was charging him.  
  
He sagged to his knees and panted softly as he felt the pain  
in his chest grow. Akane was shocked, ranma used a ki  
blast on kuno! But she was concerned that he looked so  
tired this early in the morning. She looked up hearing a  
crashing sound and felt chilled seeing ryoga "ranma prepare  
to die!"  
  
Ranma got to his feet waveringly and swayed a little at the  
lost boy charged at him. "I think you may be too late  
ryoga." ranma said softly and barely dodged the umbrella  
before he smashed him into the fence wall with a recover  
move. Ranma slumped to the ground fighting the blackness  
that was creeping over him.  
  
Ryoga stopped shocked silly by ranmas words as it got to him  
and the fact that ranma hadn't dodged his hit. He stood  
strait and looked at him increditiously "ranma what are you  
talking about?! Hey! Stand up!" he yelled walking over to  
him. He picked him up and looked wide eyed at the blood  
coming out of his mouth "h- hey are you alright?!"  
  
Akane rushed to his side "whats wrong?!" she exclaimed  
seeing it. Ranma just looked dully with pain in his eyes.  
"I don't know I barely touched him!" he said panicked.  
Ranma opened his mouth "....dying.... felt it.... since  
china..... so tired...." he whispered slumping against the  
lost boy. He jumped in fright "what do we do?!"  
  
Akane took hold of his arm "come on! Lets get him to  
cologne! Shes the only one besides tofu that can do  
anything, come on!"  
  
  
Ranma felt a warm feeling spread through him when akane  
touched him and he sturred a little. "No ranma don't  
move." she said softly. He looked around and noticed that  
he was on a table at the nekohanten.  
  
Cologne hopped into view carrying a bottle "here boy drink  
this." she said kindly as she tilted ranmas head up. He  
drank the vile stuff and slumped back to the table. "Do you  
feel any different?" she asked. Ranma shook his head slowly  
then blinked at the dazed look on akanes face "why is akane  
glowing?"  
  
Cologne looked narrow eyed at the girl before her then got  
an idea "akane, take ranmas hand and hold tight." she  
comanded. She nodded taking ranmas hand and he reared up  
gritting his teeth as something like lightning flashed  
through his body, kind of painful. Cologne nodded "I need to  
do some research. Don't let go of him." she said sternly.  
  
Ranma took a few deep breaths and looked at akane "why did  
you skip school?" he asked softly. She looked at him "I- I  
didn't want shampoo using you as a coat rack!" she said  
looking away so he couldn't see the worry on her face. He  
looked down trying to pull his hand away "oh, you should get  
to school."  
  
Akane started to respond angrily when the door opened and  
shampoo hopped in "great grand mother, shampoo back from-  
haiya! What violent girl do to husband?!?" she yelled at  
akane.  
  
Ranma winced as akane threw his hand down "mind your own  
business!" she snapped back. Shampoo grabbed ranmas legs  
and pulled him into her arms "no! Why you hurt husband!?"  
she demanded squeezing ranma.  
  
Ranma twitched slightly before trying to break her grip when  
suddenly they were drenched in water ranma took one look at  
the cat and colapsed into unconsciousness.  
  
Cologne hearing the noise came out and rapped akane on the  
head before plucking shampoo off ranma and pitched her into  
the kitchen "did I not tell you not to let go of him!?" she  
barked angrily. Akane looked sullen as she helped her put  
ranma back on the table.  
  
Shampoo came back out of the kitchen really pissed "great  
grand mother why you do that!?" she demanded. Cologne took  
the time to hit her before tapping a few points on ranmas  
chest and head then turned to do the same to akane. The  
girl started glowing brightly while ranmas glow was dull  
and flickering. Akane reached out and took her hand,  
cologne nodded seeing the flickering stop and the glow start  
to brighten slowly.  
  
She tapped a spot on ranmas head and she groaned sitting up  
"what happened?" she hissed touching her side. Cologne  
looked and nodded "take your shirt off." she told her calmly.  
Ranma frowned at her "dr tofu is gone ranma so I'm the only  
other person with the knowledge to perform his paticular  
job."  
  
Ranma shrugged excepting that and pulled her shirt off.  
Cologne hopped closer and pulled up her undershirt. Ranma  
grumbled then skreeched when she tapped a spot on her side.  
Ranma curled over clutching at her side and breathed  
shallowly for a second "what..... what the hell did you do  
that for!?!" she demanded. Cologne sighed "please sit down  
children, let me tell you what I have found out."  
  
Ranma sat between akane and the wall still in pain from  
colognes touch "ranma who did that to you?" she asked  
sitting next to shampoo. She looked sullen for a few  
minutes "it'll heal." she said instead. Cologne edged her  
staff towards the spot and ranma moved deeper into her seat  
"saffron broke four of my ribs..... they looked like they  
were healing.... but their not."  
  
Akane touched her arm and she twitched a little. Cologne  
nodded "ranma you are one of the stupidest and most  
selfless persons I've ever known, you are no longer worthy  
of being shampoos husband."  
  
Ranma looked confused "whats that mean?" she asked a little  
stronger. Cologne sighed "you are no longer able to sustain  
your own life boy. From what I'm told and from what I can  
see, akane would be dead now if you had not given her your  
life force."  
  
When ranma didn't answer cologne sighed "you bonded your  
spirit to akanes when it could no longer sustain her life.  
In other words you gave your life for hers. I'm just  
suprised it took this long for your body to weaken from the  
loss of its power source."  
  
Akane was pale and ranma was quiet. "So I did save her  
life, thats good." she whispered softly. Akane jumped up  
angrily "GOOD!? YOU THINK ITS GOOD!!?!?" she screamed at  
her. Ranma sat back looking at her through half open eyes  
"akane lets be serious. You know how I feel about you,  
sure, I can't say anything but you know. At least you'd be  
alive."  
  
Shampoo snarled jumping up "not if shampoo kill!! Give  
husband back soul!!!" she yelled moving to hit her with a  
bon bori. Cologne tapped the weapon and it hit the floor as  
her fingers went numb "you kill her and ranma really is  
dead."  
  
All three of them looked at her, akane hopeful, shampoo  
angrily and ranma sleepily "I think we should get him back  
to the dojo before he colapses again."  
  
  
Kisumi looked out into the hall and blinked seeing akane and  
shampoo walking ranma into the house. "Oh my! Whats  
wrong?!" she exclaimed hurrying over to them. ranma just  
looked at her akane had a close to tears look on her face,  
shampoo looked downright insane with pent up rage.  
  
Cologne hopped up "is ranmas mother about?" she asked.  
Kisumi nodded motioning to the woman that came out of the  
kitchen. She stopped short seeing ranma hanging from the  
girls "what is this ranma!?" she demanded halfway irate.  
ranma didn't respond. Cologne cleared her throat "I believe  
it would be best to call together your families, this is  
serious."  
  
After everyone got to the table ranma promptly colapsed with  
a loud crack as her head hit it. Cologne glared at akane  
"keep contact means skin contact girl! Hold his hand!" she  
comanded. Akane squeezed ranmas hand and she yelped weakly.  
After a minute she pulled herself up and leaned on akane.  
  
Cologne sighed seeing the questions in souns eyes and the  
anger in his parents. She glared at them "I see where the  
boy gets his stupid streak. Ok, first off let me do this."  
her cane flashed forward and smashed genma in the head.  
"That is for nearly killing ranma this morning."  
  
She looked at nodoka and soun "ranma is dying. Hes been  
like this ever since his battle with saffron. He gave  
akane his spirit to save her life, hes just now starting to  
feel the effects of the loss. I figure that he will live  
another four days if he stays in bed."  
  
Ranma snorted softly not caring anymore "remind me not to do  
that." she mumbled softly. Soun started wailing with  
genma. Nodoka looked ready to start crying herself "ranma  
how could you say that!?"  
  
Ranma looked at her mother "why shouldn't I? Can you really  
say I have a good life mom? I had a moron for a father,  
and a mother that cares more about the family honor then me.  
I have a fiancee I gave my life for, and I don't even know  
if she likes me."  
  
She laughed softly "but its not like the school has a  
problem." she muttered catching their fathers attention.  
She sighed "akane has my power. All the power I gained in  
my life is in akane, give her a little training and she'll  
be better then me in a few months. Don't need me."  
  
Ranma fell backwards when akane pulled away from her "you  
jerk! You asshole!! How dare you say I don't like you!!"  
she screamed before racing out of the room. Ranma closed  
her eyes "doesn't matter anymore."  
  
Cologne sighed "there is a way to save him!" she shouted to  
the house. Ranma didn't react, but it brought even akane  
back down stairs "how!?" they all chorused. Ranma just  
muttered something to herself "its simple really, ranma  
needs to draw energy from his soul to maintain himself on  
a day by day basis until akanes soul is strong enough to no  
longer need his to stay alive. Once that happens the next  
time he touches her his soul will return to him."  
  
Ranma cracked open an eye as everyone else started  
celebrating. She sat up slowly and looked suspicious "what  
kind of contact?" she asked in a growl. Cologne started  
chuckling as everyone looked at her wanting to know the  
answer to that question.  
  
She started to answer then started cackling again  
"ranma..... the only way.... that you can draw enough  
energy..... is to keep full body contact with akane for a  
whole night if you wish to stay among the walking for the  
next day. Meaning both of you have to be unclothed and  
preferably holding each other for the whole night."  
  
Ranma layed back down a defeated look on her face as  
everyone screamed in outrage. Shampoo got up to attack  
akane again, their fathers were dancing with joy nodoka  
looked troubled. Akane was boiling mad. Cologne tripped  
shampoo as akane ripped ranma up off the floor "how dare you  
do this to me!!!"  
  
Ranma looked at her as she drew her fist back, then pulled  
her into her arms and started crying "why?! Why are you  
looking at me like that!?" ranma didn't answer. Nodoka  
looked and bit her lip "ranma when do you ever give up?" she  
demanded sternly. Ranma looked at her "lets see, it started  
soon after china I think." she said sarcastically.  
  
She wanted to slap her when akane started shaking her "stop  
it ranma! This isn't you! God damn it why are you giving  
up?!?" she sobbed. Ranma looked at her "because its  
hopeless. I can't stop it because I'm not here." she  
touched her chest "I'm here." she touched akanes "how can I  
feel confidant if the thing that makes me feel it isn't mine  
anymore. My hope is in you, so of course its hopeless."  
  
Akane hit her and she sprawled across the floor bleeding from  
her nose. She was unconscious. Everyone was shocked out of  
their mind "see what I mean? Ranmas power are all in akane  
what he had left was used up sparring with his idiot father  
each morning. All the forms and styles he learned is still  
in his mind but the powers gained in learning them are now  
akanes. So please be careful hitting him, your a lot  
stronger then you used to be and hes weaker then a four year  
old. Come shampoo, we no longer have a reason for being  
here."  
  
  
Ranma woke up slowly feeling hot water course over his face.  
He opened his eyes and blinked a few times at a man bending  
over him "oh good your awake. Sir your parents say your  
dying and that you would like to have been married to your  
fiancee before. What do you feel about this?" he asked.  
Ranma closed his eyes "sure, what ever." he said softly and  
felt a warm touch "he does."  
  
Ranma opened his eyes and blinked at akane and was mildly  
suprised to see she was the one that answered. The man  
nodded "do you take this man to be your lawfully wedded  
husband?" he asked softly. She nodded slightly "yes."  
  
Ranma looked shocked as akane slipped a ring on his finger.  
He sat up and looked at her in suprise "no.. Wait, this is  
wrong." he mumbled taking the ring box from her. She looked  
crushed "you don't want to go through with it?"  
  
Ranma looked at the man "its wrong 'cause I have to put the  
ring on her, or its not right." he explained stupidly.  
Genma hit him in the head "stupid, you can speak better then  
that!" ranma promptly passed out. Genma was knocked into  
the stratisphere by nodoka and akane.  
  
When ranma woke back up he found he was bleeding from his  
nose again "this is annoying." he muttered letting nodoka  
wipe his face.  
  
The man smiled in simpathy "do you take this woman to be  
your wife to have and to hold until.... well you get the  
picture." he said disgruntled. Ranma nodded "I do."  
  
"No!!" a voice behind them yelled. Ranma didn't turn around  
to look at ukyo so she got up in his face "you can't!" she  
yelled. Ranma looked at her coolly "look at me ukyo.  
Haven't you noticed how different I've been lately?" he  
asked calmly. She ignored that "marry me!"  
  
Ranma jerked the ring box back when she lunged for it and  
handed it to akane "I can't, you do it." he said tiredly.  
She nodded holding up the box "this is the wedding ring  
ranma would have put on my finger if you hadn't tried to  
kill me last time. Ranma wouldn't be like this if we had  
been married, and its your fault."  
  
Ukyo snarled swinging at her only to have akane dodge inside  
the blow and deliver an open handed uppercut that sent her  
flying into the wall "careful akane! They weren't kidding  
when they said you have my power. Don't hurt her just  
disable her."  
  
Akane glared at him "ranma I'm not you! I don't dance about  
when I fight!" she hissed. Ranma looked down closing his  
eyes "is that how you see it?" he asked softly. He sighed  
laying back on the futon and closed his eyes "I don't care  
anymore, call it what you want."  
  
Akane looked annoyed at him "will you please stop that!?  
I'm getting damn tired of your defeatist attitude!" she  
yelled irately. Ranma didn't answer her "what the hell did  
you do to ranchan?!"  
  
Ranma covered his face and started chanting softly to  
himself as the two started bickering. Nodoka nelt by him  
as kisumi broke the two up "stop! Akane you should be  
ashamed of yourself! Making poor ranma suffer like this!  
He said to end the fight not bicker!"  
  
Ukyo jumped while akane bowed her head in shame "sorry  
ranma." she said softly. Ranma nodded not uncovering his  
eyes "just finish it already, even with my 'dancing' I finish  
my fights quick."  
  
Akane winced but turned back to ukyo "your not welcome here  
ukyo, you could have seriously hurt someone last time and  
we're tired of it. Leave my home." ukyo looked from akanes  
grim face to ranmas laying form.  
  
"no! Hes mine!" she shouted coming at her again. Akane  
started to respond in kind when she felt a hand go up under  
her shirt and touch her belly as ranmas arm came around her  
with a growing ball of ki in it, akane could feel he was  
shaking badly.  
  
"Ukyo, I'm not a peice of meat you can just beat someone up  
for and expect to go home with you. If you don't go... I  
will be forced to see you as my enemy." he said his voice  
shaking from exertion.  
  
Ukyo looked at the pain on ranmas face and the dazed one on  
akanes "whats going on ranma? Why are you holding her like  
that?" she asked getting worried. Ranmas hand was shaking  
and the ki was fluttering "damn it akane stop holding it  
in!"  
  
Ranma jerked suddenly and the ball firmed "thankyou." he  
muttered wiping his sweaty face on her shirt "you want to  
know whats going on?" he asked his voice stronger. He stood  
up and handed akane the ki ball "I'm dying ukyo. Saffron  
hurt me more then I thought... and akanes the only one that  
can keep me alive. Because I love her. She holds my soul  
inside her, and I have to be with her to live another day.  
I'm doing it willingly."  
  
She looked horrified "your... dying? Your doing this because  
your dying?" she looked miserable then grabbed his hand  
"then marry me! At least let me be your wife before you  
die!"  
  
Ranma layed his head on akanes shoulder and murmured  
something in a low growl "no. I will not marry you ukyo.  
You don't care about what happens to me, your more  
interested in erasing the last ten years... you want a  
hollow marrage. I don't."  
  
Ukyo glared at him "you bastard! How dare you say that?!"  
ranma looked at her for a minute "your in your own little  
dream world ukyo. You really believe all this shit that  
happened to us will just magically go away once we're  
married. It doesn't happen like that. Your too rapped up  
in your dream world to see the ugly truth. I never loved  
you ukyo. You were my best friend, only, my friend. But  
you lost even that when you bombed my wedding. For kamis  
sake! I've told you on four different occations I'm not  
marrying you!"  
  
she looked heart broken then screamed charging him enraged  
"then die you bastard!!" she screamed swinging at him. ranma  
looked emotionlessly at the hole he had just blasted her out  
of and lightly ran a finger around akanes belly button  
curessingly. she jumped a little from the feeling before  
looking curiously at him "what are you doing?" she murmured  
softly. he smiled slightly "i don't know, just feels right,  
you know?" he asked softly and she shivered when his finger  
lightly dipped into her belly button and stroked it softly  
"that feels really wierd."  
  
he smirked "its fun though. your enjoying it too." he  
chuckled softly. she nodded turning back to the preacher. he  
nodded blinking repeatedly "do you akane tendo take ranma  
saotome to be your lawfully wedded husband?" he asked  
looking slightly scared from the sound of running feet "i  
do."  
  
suddenly the door was savagely ripped open "no! i will not  
let this travisty persist!" kuno roared holding up a real  
sword. ranma snorted at him "its not your place to object."  
  
kuno snarled charging them before blinking when ranma  
slumped to the ground when akane let go of him and suddenly  
his world was beaten from him by the combined strengths of  
akanes brutal savaging and ranmas skill and power filled  
grace. ranma winced when ryoga helped him up "i think you  
might have hurt him badly akane."  
  
she snorted coming back over to them "i don't care ranma,  
his interfering is just as much to blame as the rest of  
them. lets get this over with." she looked at the  
preacher and he gulped "do you?" he repeated. she nodded  
"i do." he nodded "then by the authority invested in me..  
inameyoumanandwife!" he finished quickly as the wall  
exsploded inward and shampoo jumped through holding her bon  
bari "if no can have boy type ranma, shampoo kill girl type  
ranma!"  
  
akane let ranma grab genma and charged at shampoo with  
nodokas sword. she flashed forward and lopped the head off  
the wooden mace and smashed her knee into her face and  
stayed there until they'd hit the ground. she jumped off  
her and stood ready "you've gotten lazy bitch, ranmas been  
training me for the last three months." she spit on the  
unconscious girl and handed the sword back "nice second."  
ranma murmured softly. the preacher cleared his throat "kiss  
the bride?" he pleaded. akane nodded taking ranma and  
kissed him gently at first then with more warmth feeling  
the spark it sent through them.  
  
when they broke the kiss both of them were dazed by the  
feelings coursing through them. ranma blinked noticing that  
their parents and kisumi were cheering around them. he  
held her close looking in her eyes. she blushed slightly and  
nodded to the question in his eyes. he nodded and  
kissed her again. she nodded and moved back smiling  
slightly. she looked around at their celebrating family and  
pulled him to the door and into the house with no one  
noticing but the preacher.  
  
  
akane pulled ranma into the bathroom and smiled "i don't  
think your strong enough yet to do... it.. so lets take a bath  
and clean you up." she murmured softly. he smiled "am i  
allowed to exsplore?" he asked. she grinned "only fair,  
since thats what i'll be doing." she chuckled pulling his  
shirt off. he smiled pulling her shirt off her and tried to  
get at her bra but couldn't sit up well so sat back  
grumbling. he started pulling at the ties on her skirt when  
she reached back to undo her bra for him. "i feel like an  
invalid." he grumped blinking at her breasts as they came  
free of restraint. she blinked and smiled slightly shaking  
them in his face. ranma groaned softly as a little blood  
appeared at his nose and she looked shocked seeing the look  
on his face "you really haven't done anything with the  
others have you?" she asked softly. he shook his head looking  
back up at her face "akane... i've been in love with you  
almost from the minute you smiled at me."  
  
she grinned in pleasure reaching for his growing manhood and  
happily exsplored it with her hands as she kissed him "you  
can touch me you know." she murmured softly. he blinked up  
at her for assurance before hesitently letting his finger  
tips stroke her left breast. he smiled slightly when she  
pressed his hand to her breast and cupped both of them before  
groaning loudly in shock as his manhood convolsed in her  
hand and jerked back from the white stuff that shot out its  
tip "what was that?" ranma exclaimed softly. akane blinked  
at him unbelievingly "you don't know." she said dumbly. he  
shrugged looking uncomfortable "not really... i mean, before  
i came here i'd.... never thought of girls like that.... and  
with the um... way you acted about even the thought of  
it..." he broke off biting his lip. she blinked at him for a  
moment before the horror of what she had done broke over her  
"you were... scared to?" she asked softly. he nodded  
slightly not looking at her "you were always so angry..... i  
thought that if..... if i tried to find out what the  
feelings were.... you would hate me."  
  
she looked at him in shock and guilt for a minute before  
getting an idea "then i guess we should find out about them  
together." she whispered kissing him softly. he groaned  
softly feeling her hand slowly starting to revive him and  
went back to exsploring her breasts. 


	5. the price of giri

jiro wasn't as much into martial arts as his family really  
although his grandfather was always trying to get him  
interested in learning, he kinda scared jiro really,  
something about having a dojo in the backyard made the old  
man think he had to train in it.  
  
thats one of the few reasons he was hiding out at the  
airport and the fact that the gang in our neighborhood had  
been threatening him, saying they'd beat him up if he didn't  
join them. jiro wouldn't have cared if it wasn't for the  
fact that the gang was the silver dragons. he had heard his  
mom and aunt cursing about how they were worse then the  
yakuza because their leader was supposed to be this super  
martial artist.  
  
thats why jiro was in the airport, thats why jiro was  
sneaking out of the airport with a travel bag he'd seen in  
some of those martial arts magazines that said it was a  
martial artists over night bag, so chances were the guys  
money was in it.  
  
jiro stopped a block from the airport and held the bag close  
seeing the guys that had forced him into this position.  
"ya better have somethin' good kid or your dust." the oldest  
of them, at least twenty nine he suspected, grunted  
snatching the bag from him. jiro cringed as one of the two  
thugs with the man smacked him back into the wall, didn't  
hurt, but he always thought it better to let people think he  
was a wimp.  
  
jiro was starting to get scared when all they found in the  
bag was clothes and a fancy looking battle dogi "your  
pathetic kid! the one bag you grab has nothin' in it!" one of  
them sneered. jiro cringed "how was i ta know?! i've never  
done this before!" he pleaded. the mean looking thug pulled  
him up and sneered in his face "ya failed punk! now we gotta  
beat ya up real good, then when ya get out of the hospital  
we come get ya and ya better do a better job."  
  
jiro closed his eyes tight exspecting pain when he fell to  
the ground. he opened his eyes and blinked seeing the bully  
layed out on the ground "hey, how'd you do that tendo?!" the  
other thug said menacing him as he reached done to snatch  
him up. suddenly the man yelped as he was snatched off the  
ground and his face was smashed into the wall hard. jiro  
scrambled aside as the man slumped down the wall and gapped  
at the man that was holding the older one by the back of the  
neck, his face as bloody as the other two "get lost kid."  
  
jiro gapped at the man, he was dressed in a rich crimson silk  
shirt and a pair of comfortable black pants with a burnished  
golden color swirling around the pant legs lightly. he  
blinked seeing the shoes, almost slippers really, they  
completed the outfit to highten the almost delicate look of  
the mans features. he blinked seeing a long pony tail running  
down the mans back, red and blue ribbons used to decorate it  
fashionably.  
  
the man looked back at him almost sullenly "that guy called  
you tendo. any relation to... tendo... kisumi?" he asked  
unable to say any of the other names. jiro blinked looking  
shocked at the man standing looking like he was debating  
something "ya, shes my aunt. you know my family?" he asked,  
nervious about the man telling on him. he nodded not looking  
up "ya i knew 'em. shit, figures i'd meet the only sneek  
thief in town that was related to them."  
  
jiro jumped up "i'm notta sneek thief! they said they'd beat  
up aunt kisumi if i didn't steal the bag!" he protested. the  
man jerked and looked angrily at the three men before  
sighing "come on, i'll walk ya home." he said in an almost  
defeated voice. jiro looked scared "yer not gonna tell my  
momma are you?" he asked scared. ranma looked at him "for  
what? being pressured into somethin'? so... why hasn't your  
old man taught you martial arts?" he asked as he walked with  
the kid down a side street, they had just gotten off a bus,  
jiro had thought of bolting if he didn't suspect the guy  
knew where he lived. he snorted "i don't got an old man.  
momma said he ran off after aunt nibiki was killed."  
  
the man looked stricken "nibiki died?" he breathed. he  
nodded "ya, momma said that they found a poison in her blood  
besides what that umbrella guy did to her." he said  
shrugging. the man face faulted "a poison?!" he exclaimed.  
jiro looked closely at the guy "how come you so shocked  
about it?" he asked. the man looked at him with eyes filled  
with grief "because, i was the one fightin' the umbrella guy  
when he hurt nibiki."  
  
  
jiro opened the front door and blinked seeing the guy  
hesitate at the front door "hey momma!" he called out and  
grinned when she came out into the hall "i met this guy  
today that said he knew that umbrella guy that hurt aunt  
nibiki." he said and gained the attention of his aunt and  
grandfather. his mother nodded "oh? thats not really that  
shocking dear, he traveled the world and a lot of people  
knew him."  
  
jiro nodded grinning "ya, but he says hes the one that was  
fightin' him when he did it, he also said he hurt him long  
enough for the police to come." he said smiling. his aunt  
gasped covering her mouth "where did you see this man son?"  
his grandfather said. before he could answer they looked up  
hearing someone clear their throat softly.  
  
jiro was confused, his mom and grandfather was angry  
instantly, auntie kisumi looked happy to see him "how dare  
you come back here after-" grandfather was cut off by mom.  
the man looked meekly at them "i just... the boy was bein'  
kicked around by a few guys a little older then i am, i  
figured walk him home, sorry to bother." he took a step  
back and looked sadly at them before closing the door "ranma  
wait!" jiro jumped when his mother ran after the man.  
  
he blinked coming out of the door with the rest of them to  
see his mother talking softly with the man, both of them had  
their heads bowed "so... did you ever find out how nibiki  
got poisoned?" he asked so softly they almost didn't hear  
it. his mother nodded "kodachi poisoned her when she found  
out kuno was interested in her. thats why she stumbled  
between you two."  
  
the man nodded sadly "i still wish i coulda saved her." he  
whispered closing his eyes. she nodded reaching out but  
stopped looking away. jiro blinked for a minute "so who is  
he auntie?" he asked making all of them jump. kisumi looked  
nervious "thats... thats your father jiro, ranma saotome."  
  
everyone jumped as the man feel over like a ton of bricks,  
unconscious before he hit the ground jiro gapped even more  
"that guys my dad?!"  
  
  
ranma woke up and blinked for a few seconds at the ceiling  
before souns grim face came into his field of vision "well,  
i see you've awakened. mind telling me why you knocked up  
my little girl and ran off?" he asked looking like he wanted  
to froth at the mouth but was controling himself. ranmas  
eyes bugged and he sat up looking stunned at the wall "i  
didn't run away soun, akane told me... she said to never  
come back... she blamed me for what happened to nibiki."  
  
soun blinked at what he said "you... didn't leave....  
willingly?" he asked softly. ranma shook his head slowly  
"akane attacked me after nibiki was taken to the hospital...  
told me to leave and never come back. when i tried to talk  
to her... she broke my arm, chased me away." he rubbed his  
arm closing his eyes "i figured... if she was willin' to  
bring out the tendo family sword..." he shook his head  
sadly.   
  
soun looked down sadly "i... i'm sorry for... thinking ill  
of you son. akane refused to speak of it..." ranma nodded  
"its ok soun, its what i'd come to exspect from you." he  
sighed standing up to blink at the man "so what do i do  
now?" both looked up as the door opened and kisumi walked in  
with jiro, he looked nervous. "seems fathers taught this  
young man a few bad habits." jiro laughed nerviously then  
settled when the guy smirked.  
  
ranma sighed rubbing at his head "so what do you think about  
this?" he asked jiro. he shook his head "i don't know, are  
you really my old man?" ranma blinked "i don't know, but  
don't call me that." he nodded "so what do i call you?" he  
asked. ranma looked down for a few minutes then looked at  
him "ask your mother."  
  
he nodded sitting next to the man as aunt kisumi nelt near  
them "so... how've you been.. kisumi?" he asked softly not  
looking up. she looked down "i'm fine."  
  
  
ranma was silently examining the empty koi pond a few hours  
later when running caught his attention. he blinked seeing  
akane near but was more interested in the danger he felt on  
the other side of the fence. he stood up and started towards  
the wall "what is it?" she asked "don't know." he murmured  
hopping the fence and blinked when he was almost knocked  
over by jiro. he blinked "i thought you were in the house?"  
he asked.  
  
he pulled away and hid behind him as four men charged up  
"whos yer friend punk?" a man with a pinched face and  
bleached hair sneered. ranma blinked at them for a second  
then turned to jiro "you get into trouble often don't you?"  
he shrugged then looked scared when akane came up behind  
them "whats going on ranma?" she asked. ranma shrugged  
putting his hands in his pockets "i don't have the  
slightest, i jump the fence and this guy was playing cannon  
ball. then his friends here showed up."  
  
akane blinked pulling her son into her arms "whats going on  
jiro?" she asked. he gulped "i didn't do anythin'! they just  
started chasin' me." he said softly. ranma put his hands  
behind his back and looked at the four "i'm pretty sure that  
your going to be thankful if you go away quickly."  
  
they snorted "oh man, i just knew i would run scared from a  
pretty boy today!" the pudgy one with the ratty gote said in  
mock fear. ranma released a hand and beckoned to them  
wordlessly. they looked at each other then one grinned  
starting forward "your gonna hurt wimp, i'm a second level  
master of kung fu." he sneered dropping into a fighting  
stance.  
  
ranma beckoned to him again and a small smirk touched his  
lips. the man snarled charging at him and threw a dizzying  
array of punches and kicks. ranma smirked when the man  
suddenly fell unconscious to the ground halfway through his  
attack, not even akane saw ranma move. he smiled at the  
other three as they gapped down at the man. "you should  
be listening to that running feeling you had earlier."  
  
after they left ranma snorted turning back to the two "so  
what was it this time?" he asked jiro. he looked down "i was  
just at the arcade with my friends, they tried to jump me."  
he said sullenly. he nodded letting it go "how about we go  
back inside?"  
  
akane followed ranma into the dojo after jiro had gone back  
into the house and slapped him "i've worked hard trying to  
keep him away from this acursed school, its bad enough that  
dads always trying to teach him, i don't want you making him  
think fighting is a easy answer!"  
  
ranma looked at her in suprise for a moment then glared  
angrily "i can't believe you. i can't believe you would quit  
like this. do you know what you've done to that boy?!" he  
demanded in a quietly angry voice. she looked shocked for a  
second before getting up in his face "are you questioning  
how i raise my son?!?" she demanded loudly. he got up in her  
face "no, i'm questioning why your turning our son into  
someone that thinks an easy way to get out of a problem is  
to wait until their finished beating him!!"  
  
he nodded to the shock on her face "ya! you want to know how  
i met him?!?! i was following a boy who had snatched my bag  
from the airport! seems a group of guys, not kids or teens  
but men! these guys had bullied jiro into stealing luggage  
from the airport saying they'd hurt kisumi if he didn't!  
when i caught up with them he was just standing there  
waiting for them to beat him for stealing something  
worthless! he wasn't going to fight back, he was just going  
to wait until they were finished and hope he could get  
home!" he snarled stalking away a few feet "thats what i  
question, that his mother seems to have convenced him its  
better to let them kill you then to defend yourself!!"  
  
he stared at her challanging her to deny what he said. she  
was stunned silent and tried to shake her head to deny it  
so he turned to soun who was standing in the doorway with  
kisumi and a gapping jiro. he looked at soun "can you please  
tell me what she did to the boy to kill his spirit like  
that?"  
  
akane screamed hatefully and attacked him suddenly. ranma  
looked grimly at her as he blocked all of her attacks  
effortlessly for a few minutes before hooking a foot and  
held her to the ground without hurting her. she struggled  
for a few minutes before she broke down and started crying  
in grief. ranma let her up and pulled her into his lap and  
cradled her gently against him murmuring soothingly in her  
ear as she leaned on him.  
  
ranma looked up at their family in the door and sighed  
"jiro. do you have a gi?" he asked softly. he shook his head.  
ranma turned to soun "do you have one that he can wear? i  
think you might want to see if you can find one for akane as  
well, she needs to train as much as he does."  
  
he nodded "i'll be right back." ranma nodded and looked at  
akane "i'm going to teach the boy how to fight akane, he's  
my son and what you've done to him is... jiro come here, sit  
by your mother and i'll tell you a little about my family's  
history." he didn't move for a minute then did when kisumi  
pushed him gently.  
  
he sighed letting akane go "akane, being a saotome, is more  
then just a name. all through the ages saotomes have been  
ranked among the strongest warriors ever to appear, some of  
our oldest family legends say its because an ancestor  
married a mamono and ever since then a saotome child was  
born with potential for being the greatest martial artists,  
far greater then normal people."  
  
he shook his head "in all that time only two ever were bad  
people, one of them was responsible for the fall of the  
emperial house at that time. saotomes have always been apart  
of one school of martial arts or another, because we know  
what not training in one does to us." he looked at akane in  
frustration "why damn it! why did you forsake the art!? you  
should have been teaching him to release his anger a long  
time ago! do you even begin to realize what i have to do to  
break the barrier he's already built around his emotions?!"  
he demanded. she flinched back from his anger "i don't want  
him trained in martial arts ranma!" she pleaded.  
  
ranma cut her off "there are two choices akane, either i  
train him or i will redeem him after hes started murdering  
people." he rumbled grimly. akane shook her head looking at  
him "thats not going to happen!" she shouted. ranma nodded  
"it will happen! it happened to me!! ya, remember saffron?!"  
he demanded loudly. he nodded at the horror on her face "ya,  
i've trained to control my anger but that did not stop me  
from ripping that man to peices when he hurt you!" she hugged  
the boy closer "wha- what do i do?" she asked softly. ranma  
looked grim "i'm going to take him on a traiing trip."  
  
she jumped up yelling angrily in refusal "no!! theres no way  
i hell your going to do to my son what genma did to you!!"  
she screamed at him. he got in her face "of course not! pop  
was a simpering idiot. i am going to do this to try and  
repair the damage you did to our son! we'll be gone a few  
months, in that time i want to be able to come back here and  
see the woman i loved again! i know the akane i knew would  
have been disgusted with what you've done to yourself. think  
about it akane. pop took me from mom because she did not  
think training hard was that importent. don't make me do  
it."   
  
soun looked angry stepping up to them "here now ranma this  
is a little too much!" he said angry himself. ranma looked  
at him "you knew my family soun, pop must have told you what  
not learning to discapline our emotions would do to us, this  
is just as much your fault as hers. if i had been smart ten  
years ago i would have defended myself against her and  
stayed!"  
  
soun looked away unable to meet his eyes "i was not going to  
go against my daughter ranma." he said softly. ranma nodded  
"you show her honor by doing it but it was your duty to both  
our families to inform me or mother that i had a son. i  
would have come back right then." soun bit his lip "i didn't  
know where you were."  
  
ranma nodded "mom did, she always knew where i was. she was  
as clueless about this as i was. i know pop would be hurt  
that you kept this from us."  
  
  
ranma looked up from packing a tent as jiro came into the  
room "why are you doing this?" he asked looking like he  
wanted to cry. ranma sighed looking down "jiro." he looked at  
him "what your mother did to you is a crime in my family. if  
my grandparents were still alive...." he shook his head "its  
an offence against all saotomes to let it get so bad. you  
are my son so that makes you a very dangerous person. even  
greater danger if you haven't been trained in the art."  
  
ranma sat strait "in the old days, the elders of our clan  
would have put your mother and i to death for the state your  
in right now. after the last encounter with a rogue saotome  
the ruling class added the punishment to the natioal laws, a  
law just to govern us saotomes. if i was a dutiful son... i  
would be forced to redeem all three of us to restore our  
honor." he pressed his fist to the mats letting a pained look  
cross his face "you just don't know how wrong it is the way  
you are. if my father had been around he would have taken you  
from your mother and probably never given you back. because  
he knows what the path she forced you to leads. it leads to  
evil and the murder of innocent people for no other reason  
then to apease a rage that controls you so much you can  
barely tell what it is you do anymore."  
  
he started packing the tent again "that is why i do this, to  
ask forgiveness from the spirits of our ancestors and pray  
they help me set you on the right path again." jiro was  
looking at the floor wanting to cry at his words until ranma  
took ahold of his shoulders gently "jiro, look at me. you  
need this, to follow the path of the coward is to foster a  
rage so deep that it will consume you and nothing will be  
left of you. go pack a bag, ask your grandfather what to  
pack."  
  
he nodded, his lip trimbling softly before hurrying out of  
the room. he sighed looking depressed then blinked at  
kisumi who was in front of him "when will you return?" she  
asked softly. ranma smiled at her "i'm not going to run off  
with him if thats what you mean. i'll bring him back in a  
few months. he needs to learn, you have no idea how wrong  
the way he was is. i've got to fix this mistake before mom  
learns about it." she looked frightened all of a sudden  
"what would she do?" she asked softly. ranma stopped and  
looked at her grimly "you must have wondered why mother is  
the way she is, her clan has married into the saotome clan  
many times in the past for no better reason then to watch  
over us, once she finds out i have a son even i didn't know  
about she will first track the boy down and if she doesn't  
aprove of the way he is living she will do what her clan has  
alwasy done, prevent a saotome from reaching that path, then  
she would track me down and do the same to me for letting it  
get that far."  
  
kisumi covered her mouth in horror "you own mother...!!" she  
gasped. he nodded noticing jiro in the door with akane  
"she'd probably go after akane as well as payment for  
releasing such a person on japan again." ranma sinched his  
pack tight and looked at them "if that happens i'll be  
forced to kill my mother, i won't let anyone harm either of  
you." he said grimly. akane sniffed tears in her eyes  
"does... do you mean that?" she whispered. he nodded closing  
his eyes "you don't know how much i wanted to come back to  
you akane, it killed me what happened to nibiki and i felt  
like you'd sent me to hell when you did that. if you  
knew...." he shook his head closing his eyes "moms been  
trying to get me to agree to marry a girl she says was  
aproved as my wife by her family." he shook his head looking  
firm "i'm not going to do it. unlike pop i don't go for the  
idea of a loveless marrage." akane looked angry "shes  
trying..." she stopped when he nodded "ya, she has about as  
much love as a rock, i won't marry someone like that." 


	6. husk

Ranma winced as ryoga punch ruptured a vat or something  
causing a wave of warm sticky substance to wash over him.  
Ranma sputtered trying to get the stuff out of his mouth and  
gasped rubbing at his eyes. "An opening!"  
  
Ranma looked up as a blur flew at him and pain exsploded  
through his body as ryoga smashed him through another one of  
the vats bringing an ungodly amount of pain racing through  
him "this ends now ranma! Never again will you hurt akane  
with your honorless actions!"  
  
By now ranma was beyond caring, the pain serging through him  
brought to mind a cat for some reason and he gladly lets the  
cat out as ryogas shout faded from him "SHI SHI HOKUDAN!!!"  
  
  
"We don't really know saotome-san, your son has burns over  
ninty eight percent of his body, when we check we get no  
reaction when light is shined in his eyes....." tofu broke  
off looking at the other enemy/friends of ranmas and frowned  
at ryoga hugging akane supportively "excuse me officers?" he  
said to the police men that had been with ranma when he had  
been brought in "the burn scars, the damage done, theres  
only one person I know of that could do that. Or would want  
to." he turned back to the group and looked ryoga right in  
the eyes "so, why did you do this, ryoga?"  
  
Akane jerked away from him in anger and horror "you?!? you  
did it?! You bastard!! No wonder you were so happy!!!" the  
cops nodded walking over to ryoga "sir you are under arrest  
for willfully destroying government property and attempted  
murder." ryoga jumped "but.... it was an honorable  
challange! Its his own fault he got hurt so bad!"  
  
Suddenly a loud beeping sound came to them "ah shit!" tofu  
ran back into the room along with a few doctors and nurses.  
After a half hour tofu came back out pulling his surgeons  
cap off his head. Tofu sat down in a chair and cupped his  
hands over his bowed head "time of death; 9:13. I hope your  
happy ryoga, your now a murderer."  
  
Ryoga would have broken loose and ran for it if cologne  
hadn't paralized him with a pressure point "when this wears  
off, all the power you gained fighting ranma will be gone.  
This is my punishment for your crime." the cops carted him  
out of there with the help of a stretcher.  
  
Akane walked to the door and almost got through it when tofu  
caught her "no! You shouldn't see him like this!" he said  
holding her tight "I have to! No let me see him! He  
promised!! He promised he wouldn't leave me!!!" he held  
onto the girl when she broke down into hystarics and wailed  
on tofus shoulder "no he can't be dead! He promised we would  
be together!! He can't leave me now! We've only been  
married three days!!!!"  
  
Everyone was shocked at what she said "what are you saying  
akane?!" kisumi gasped. Akane pulled a necklace she hadn't  
worn a few days ago out of her shirt, on it were two wedding  
rings "we were keeping it a secret..... too many people who  
would hurt us..... like ryoga!"  
  
Ukyo snarled through her tears "you lying bitch! Ranma  
didn't love you!!!" she screamed lunging at her. Suddenly  
the air rippled around akane and ukyo went flying into the  
wall, hard. ".... akane....." everyone chilled hearing it.  
"Ranma!?"  
  
Akane pushed away from tofu and looked at the ripple "....  
save..... ranko.... shes.... dying....." akane ran into the  
hospital room and saw the way the body rocked slightly  
"shes..... inside him!" she gasped hearing the slight noise.  
She raised her hand and brought it down hard with a battle  
cry that broke a hole in the corpses chest. everyne screamed  
in horror, akane gasped reaching in deeper "she is in there!  
Ow!" she pulled her hand out and rubbed the sore spot before  
grabbing the edge of the hole and pulled as she punched it  
again. A hand came out and grasped hers tightly before it  
started punching at the shell.  
  
Akane grabbed a large part of the chest and heaved on it as  
the girls hands from the inside pushed. Suddenly the whole  
chest and part of the arm came off and ranko sat up. She  
hugged herself and sobbed with relief, she looked up as  
someone hugged her and rapped her arms around akane as she  
started crying "oh thank you! I was so scared!" she cried.  
Both looked up suddenly as a hissing sound filled the room  
and everyone but the two hit the floor.   
  
The two looked on in horror as men started filing into the  
room and covered them with weapons "step away from the girl  
maam!" one of them shouted. They clutched at each other  
tighter "not a chance! I married him, hes mine!" they  
looked at each other then back at her "maam that might not  
even be human anymore."  
  
Akane looked at ranko wide eyed as she snarled at the men  
"what? You exspect me to just walk away from being boiled in  
such things as human growth formula and lets see, what was  
the other one? Oh ya, genetic mutagen. Let me guess, your  
trying to nudge us into the next evolutionary step ahead of  
everyone else."  
  
ranko suddenly disappeared and they cried out in pain as she  
reappeared slamming them into the walls akane gapped at her  
for a minute until ranko blinked at her "what?" akane walked  
around behind her and grabbed something that made ranko  
jerk "what the hell.." she asked and grabbed it herself. she  
blinked at the tail akane brought around to show to her.  
she grinned petting it "neat!"  
  
akane nodded hurrying out of the room after telling her to  
stay put. when she came back she poured hot water over her  
and smiled in relief see ranmas beautiful face peeking back  
out at her. he smiled moving in for a kiss when she pressed  
a pair of pants and a shirt on him "come on, lets get out  
of here."  
  
he nodded after a minute of thinking and quickly pulled the  
pants on "so... what the hells happened to me?" he asked  
trying to figure out what to do with the tail before rapping  
it about his waist and pulled the pants up. she shook her  
head "i don't know, is that you ranma?" she asked biting her  
lip. ranma blinked "of course it is, you don't know how  
scared i was that you weren't going to get the message and  
come free me." he said shaking his head. letting her pull  
him out of the room. 


	7. taming of the shrew

Ranma groaned feeling his consciousness flooding back into her.  
"Ranma! Are you alright?" akane exclaimed bending over her. Ranma  
blinked slowly at first not recognizing her until she started  
glowing with anger at having been ignored "a- aka-.... akane. What  
happened?" she whispered closing her eyes against the pain. "A  
trash dumpster hit you, we were worried." she said motioning to ukyo  
who was in the room smiling not so sweetly at him. She nodded  
looking away 'ya right, that damn dumpster rolled down that hill on  
purpose, you bitch akane, you tried to kill me.'  
  
Ranma sat up in bed the next time after akane had left and called in  
the nurse. She smiled walking into the room "how may I help you my  
dear?" she asked. Ranma smiled softly "has ms tendo and ms kuonji  
left?" she asked softly. She nodded smiling "yes! They are such  
good girls." she said happily. Ranma nodded blowing that off. "Is  
my father here? I would like to see him." she said in a rough  
voice. The woman bit her lip "I'm sorry dear, mr... saotome was  
arrested yesterday when it was found that he was responsible for  
your accident." she said sadly. Ranma blinked at her for a minute  
then nodded "miss, do you have a cell phone?" she asked softly. She  
nodded wondering why she asked. Ranma held out her hand "can I  
borrow it please?"   
  
After the woman wheeled her out into the hospital gardens ranma bit  
her lip looking at the woman "please, you mustn't tell anyone I did  
this, they'll kill me if they suspect, and right now I'm too weak to  
fight them." she said flipping open the cell phone. She dialed a  
number with her one unbroken finger on her good hand. She looked at  
the curious nurse "no one is to know about this, please?" she asked  
softly then looked back at the phone scanning the windows "hello?" a  
voice said cheerfully "hello maam? I don't have time to explain  
much to you right now but can you please come to the nerima medical  
center today? I'm afraid your my last hope at this point." she said  
softly. There was silence for a few minutes "and why would I do  
that miss?" the voice said. Ranma cleared her throat "because I'm  
checked in under the name ranma saotome, I think you'll want to  
hurry maam I'm in a rather large amount of danger right now and you  
need to hear what I have to say, your the only hope I got left."  
  
Ranma handed the phone back to the woman with a fearful look on her  
face "please, you got to keep this a secret, those two harpies visit  
me all the time and I'm afraid they might just poison me if they  
found out, please, help me." she asked holding onto the womans hand  
as tightly as her weakened condition allowed, tears rolling down her  
face "please, I don't want to die, I didn't deserve any of this  
shit. Please, keep this from them."  
  
The nurse walked back into the nurses station very troubled by what  
the girl had told her and didn't know what to do until a rather  
stately woman in a kimono and carrying a silk rapped bundle walked  
up to the desk. "Excuse me, I'm looking for... saotome ranmas room,  
a girl I believe." she said calmly smiling. The woman blinked at  
her "you must be the woman she called." she said softly then after  
looking about, walked out from behind the desk and led her off  
to the side "maam, if what the girl told me is true you got to get  
her out of here, shes in quite a lot of danger, I've seen the way  
her visitors act around her maam, shes terrified by them and they  
are in no way nice about it. Let me take you to her room."  
  
Ranma looked up from the map of the hospital and jumped seeing the  
nurse "geez! You scared me! I thought you were a tendo or  
something." she said sighing in relief before stopping seeing the  
red haired woman she was leading into the room "you came.... I  
don't believe you came." she whispered. The woman nodded sitting  
down next to her "please tell me why your listed here under my sons  
name?"  
  
Ranma breathed deeply and looked at the nurse "can you take us to  
another room? Somewhere private? I don't what them suspecting  
anything, and they get out of school in a few hours." she said  
softly as she hopped out of bed on her one good foot and the womans  
eyes widened seeing the bandages all over her "what did this to you  
dear?" she asked. Ranma snorted "a trash dumpster filled with lead  
fillings, they pushed it down the hill at me while I was passing, it  
was sudden, but not sudden enough for me not to see that smug look  
on their faces as the thing crushed me against that brick wall." she  
muttered sitting in the wheel chair the woman pulled out for her and  
wheeled her to the large shower room looking around for anyone  
watching. The woman followed close behind looking troubled.  
  
  
Ranma gasped standing up from the wheelchair and walked over to the  
showers and sat down on the sink "nurse, you stay, I've gotten you  
in enough danger, you might as well know why." she said pulling her  
leg up then smashed the cast against the wall "oh god that hurt!"  
she gasped almost passing out "what are you doing?!" the nurse  
exclaimed. Ranma looked at her "the cast... will cut my leg off if  
I activate the trasformation while its still on, I'm a fast healer,  
but not from that type of wound. I'm listed here under saotome  
ranma, because I am saotome ranma. Hear me out and I'll show you."  
  
Ranma continued smashing the cast with a fist that didn't look like  
it had the power "a year ago, pop and I were training in china, we  
found out about a place that had... springs of magical water that  
grants the person that jumps into them the ability to take on the  
form of the person that drown in the spring, or so it said, from the  
pictures I've seen, I look like my mother at sixteen. Pop decided  
that having a second body to hide in at times would be a good idea.  
So, he pushed me into the spring of drown girl then jumped into  
spring of drown panda. We trained hard after the magic took effect,  
learning to have cold and hot water on hand at all times, rapid  
clothes changing, that sort of thing. Pop called it the saotome  
school secret attack: rapid confusion. If your chasing a woman one  
minute you wouldn't realize the man that just stepped out from  
behind that fence is going to attack you until after hes downed you.  
This was always a questionable attack to me at least. But its saved  
our lives a few times, and we never abused it."  
  
They were blinking at her as she finished pulling the cast off and  
after thinking about it pulled the rest of the stuff off her as  
well, even wincing as she pulled the bandage off the spot where the  
trash can had smashed in her rib cage. She took up a towel and  
blushed smiling "I would rather save my embarressment." she said  
turning on the water and after a minute ducked under it bunching the  
towel at her waist. The two women gasped in shocked horror as her  
body shifted about and grew larger, her skin darkening to a deep  
healthy tan as the wounds that had been all over her body  
disappeared until he was standing before them a few seconds later  
fully heal and a very beautiful man. He smiled at the awe on the  
nurses face as well as the hope on the womans "yes, I am ranma  
saotome, mother. Pop thought you would question my manliness just  
because I can change into a woman, I don't see why, its just a part  
of the art, I just wish I had my disguise kit." he cursed then  
looked at the nurse "do you think you can get me a pair of doctors  
scrubs? The mask and the hair net thing, they'll attack me if they  
see me like this." he said. Looking very uncomfortable. She nodded  
disappearing from the room "you really change into a woman ranma?"  
nodoka asked softly. He chuckled drying himself "yes, you wouldn't  
believe how real it is. Its a fully operational female body, gives  
new meaning to espionage doesn't it? No one would suspect the man  
that had just done the job was the woman that was necking in the  
ball room. Its rather disgusting to kiss a guy but its a part of  
the art, you have to endure even the most loathsome ordeal to pull  
off the job." he said grinning. She frowned at him "have you slept  
with a man?" she demanded. He shuttered "thank kami, no I haven't,  
thankfully enough I haven't been forced to do that to escape."  
  
He smiled "no the farthest I've had to go in that way was to knock  
out a man and put him in a bed before stripping and getting under  
him. It was rather funny, when the guards burst into the room I had  
to play like they had interrupted us when the whole time the guy had  
a bleeding nose, I was sure they would see the blood." he laughed  
then shook his head as the nurse came into the room followed but  
nibiki, who was holding a gun. "Impressive saotome. I didn't think  
even you could have survived what akane and that witch ukyo did to  
you. Ryoga didn't survive it, you must have wondered what killed  
him?"  
  
Ranma snarled at her "and of course you covered it up didn't you?  
You framed my father!" he snarled then remembered he was naked.  
Nibiki smirked tossing him a box "of course. Akanes my sister, but  
shes gone too far this time. She always had a problem controling  
her anger and after ukyo came to live with us she went bad. Ukyos  
hell bent to kill any man that gets close to akane, she killed kuno.  
I see akane wanting to get away from this ranma, please help me free  
my sister."  
  
Ranma snorted as he looked through the box and quickly pulled on a  
pair of boxers "that sister of yours is nuts nibiki, shes caused me  
no end of pain since pop brought me here the little 'accident' with  
the meat grinder in the kitchen, pushing me in front of the truck on  
the way to school and now the dumpster. Your sister is out to kill  
me nibiki. I don't care if she is my fiancee, I'm out of here."  
  
She snarled at him "no your not! Its your fault ukyo first showed  
up on our doorstep, pouring her venom into my sister. Shes the one  
that blinded kisumis left eye! Kisumi admonished her for telling  
akane such bad things and 'accidentally' tripped her into the chair.  
Slammed was more like! I keep the house bugged ranma, the whole  
thing with video and sound. I saw that bitch hit her in the back of  
the head and slam her eye down on that damned chair. Then she said  
something snide like 'don't ever tell me what to do.' fathers useless  
because hes too afraid of her! You were the only one strong enough  
ranma to stop ukyo from killing my family. My father trained in  
martial arts for twenty years and he still isn't half as good as you  
are!"  
  
Ranma looked down at the box in his lap "what would you have me do  
nibiki? I can't hit her! Its dishonorable to hit a woman! I've  
crusted boulders with these hands!" he said plantively holding out  
his large hands. She nodded "might I remind you that ryoga could do  
that too and she still suceeded in goading akane into distracting  
him long enough to kill him, the way she did with you. I saw that  
too you know, she pushed akane into knocking you into that wall hard  
enough for you to be too dizzy to escape the dumpster then set it up  
to look like genma did it. Isn't nearly killing you and sending  
your father to jail on attempted murder charges enough of a reason  
to get over your arrogence?! Yes! Its not honor that stops you  
from fighting girls, its your arrogence and fear of hurting someone  
that looked weaker then you."  
  
He snorted "so your telling me that if I hit you the way I did ryoga  
when we fought it wouldn't rupture your intestines?" he asked  
snidely. She smirked "ranma, everyone knows ryoga was some sort of  
superhuman. As are you, why the hell did you think you survived  
being hit by a trash dumpster pushed hard down hill filled with four  
hundred pounds of lead fillings." she remarked then pinned him with  
a stare "tell me what would have happened if it had hit you as a  
man?" she demanded. He shrugged "I would have shrugged it off. I  
was hurt so bad because I only have about a sixteenth my normal  
strength in that body and its more easily damaged. Maybe.... should  
I mom? Is it right for a man to pit his skill against a woman you  
know isn't anywhere in your league? I don't want to hurt akane!"  
  
Nodoka bit her lip then nodded "its your duty to put a stop to this  
ranma, this woman has already killed someone and is responsible for  
maiming kisumi, how anyone could hurt that innocent girl I'll never  
know!" she said then gripped the thing she was carrying and pulled  
the rapping aside to reveal the hilt of her sword. Ranma looked  
wide eyed at it as he held his hand out asking. She bit her lip but  
showed it to him. Ranma looked reverently at the delicate workings  
of the hilt and sheath "mothers sword. Pop said it was just as  
beautiful as its owner, I see he wasn't mistaken." he murmured  
grinning at her over the naked blade. He flipped it about then  
grinned sheathing it "pop always spoke highly of you mom, he loves  
you greatly, I missed you." he whispered hugging her. She hugged  
him back "my son..." she breathed tears coming to her eyes when he  
let her go "I have an idea."  
  
Ranma walked back over to his box and started looking through it and  
pulled out a kimono and compared it to his mothers "damn, wish I had  
my sword." he muttered pulling out a pair of panties and a bra along  
with makeup. He looked up at them and cleared his throat "can I get  
dressed please?" he asked eying the door. Nibiki and the nurse  
left. Nodoka blinked "can I help dear?" she asked. He smiled "you  
can watch if you want." he chuckled pulling his boxers off and got  
himself wet. She looked at her for a minute as she let her hair  
down then with fingers flying put the amazing amount of hair into a  
bun and then put on the panties and bra. She smiled reassuriingly  
when she looked disturbed "mom, I have the body I might as well use  
it to its best advantage. Pop and I run a very lucritive  
investigation service, you wouldn't believe the kind of things a man  
will tell a pretty woman. I really hate the cheating husband cases  
since pop makes me run interference while he gets photos and other  
things, but we have rich clients that value our work, of course they  
don't know how we do it since they only meet us in our normal forms.  
It still pisses me off that I had to search around to find your  
phone number and address. Pop refused to tell me where you lived  
for some reason." she looked up from the box and smiled serenely  
"how do I look?" she asked in a soft happy voice. Nodoka blinked  
not recognizing the girl although she had watched her change "thats  
amazing."  
  
Nibiki and the nurse looked up as nodoka walked out of the bathroom  
and smiled at them. Nibiki blinked a minute later seeing the case  
in her hands then seeing nodoka come out behind her shaking her head  
"my son is a master of disguises." she stated softly. Ranma nodded  
smiling "yes it helps to be very good in this trade. Shall we go?"  
  
  
"Ok, heres how it is from my standpoint. Pop brings me to the dojo  
saying I have two fiancees that live there. I was pissed, he said  
one of them was a betrothal from birth while the other was pawned  
off on him by her rather dishonorable father. The girl was mean as  
hell and I was forced to restrain her often. Pop figures it would  
be good practice, I didn't like it from the start. But after she  
started poisoning our food he sent her to his friend, not the best  
of choices since its also where my other fiancee lived. Pop took me  
to see akane every few years and I really liked her, but the next  
time we went to see them she hit me. Ukyo flat out attacked me.  
Pop snatched me up and took off. We didn't come back until a year  
ago."  
  
She looked down from her glass "the change to that family was  
horrifying mother. Kisumi was wearing an eye patch and was always  
withdrawn, no one would tell me what had happened to her and I ended  
up dodging scopal sharp spatulas and that damned hammer akane picked  
up somewhere." she said then apologized to her mother. She nodded  
smiling. Nibiki sighed "kisumis scared of doing anything ranma, she  
doesn't want to lose her other eye. Ukyo threatened me saying that  
if I told anyone about it she would put her other eye out before  
they took her away. Father just went deeper into his depression."  
she said sadly.  
  
Ranma sighed sadly before looking at nodoka "pop did this mom. He  
let that scumbag pawn his daughter off on us then sent her to ruin  
there lives." she set down her tea cup and looked at nibiki "tell me  
nibiki, do you have solid evidence that ukyo is the one that pushed  
the dumpster? And your sister?" she asked softly. Nibiki nodded  
"as well as a tape of her nearly tagging akane with the truck she  
hit ryoga with. I've got everything needed to put her away for  
ever, all I need to do is get her away from my family before I can  
use it." she said cupping her face "I also got a confession of guilt  
in kunos poisoning." she added then looked at ranma as she stood up  
and walked across the room to look at the two swords sitting on her  
mothers mantle. "Mom, do the tendos know your family well?" she  
asked taking down the two swords and grinned at them. She blinked  
"no, all they know is that I married your father."  
  
Ranma nodded smiling as she looked at nibiki "go home. In about  
three hours the dojo will get a call saying genmas wife and daughter  
are coming for a visit, hoping to catch their errent men folk. If  
pops there clue him in that I'm doing something but don't say what.  
Miuki, it was nice meeting you, thankyou for your help." she said  
bowing to the nurse who looked like she wanted to go. She nodded  
smiling "it was very interesting meeting you saotome-san, both of  
you. Good day tendo-san." she said walking out the door. Ranma  
grinned rubbing her hands together as nibiki walked out the door "ok  
mom, lets work on what pop calls a complimentary history."  
  
  
Kisumi moved about and blinked hearing a knock at the front door.  
She stood up and after flicking her eye to the two brooding girls  
sitting in the den, she went quickly to the front door and looked  
out. She looked wide eyed at the two women in the front yard "hello  
is... kisumi!!?" nodoka exclaimed dropping her sword. Ranma caught  
it quickly as nodoka backed the skittish girl into the house  
reaching out with horrified anger on her face "kisumi what happened  
to you?! Let me look!" she comanded as she backed kisumi to a chair  
and gently touched her face. She nelt beside her and gently wiped  
the tears from the girls eye as she soothed her "my god kisumi how  
did this happen? Oh god I'm sorry! I can't believe I let this  
happen under my nose!" she cried laying her head in kisumis lap.  
Ranma came over carrying both bundles and rubbed her mothers  
shoulder "ranma!" akane yelled in shocked happiness. Ranma blinked  
at her blankly "where? Is my brother here?!" she exclaimed looking  
about. Nodoka looked up "ranma?! My son?" she asked standing up  
and looked around with ranma. Ranma rounded on akane "why did you  
say his name if he wasn't here?"  
  
Nodoka nodded looking reprovingly at akane "thats not nice young  
lady, we've waited too long for them to come home for you to pick  
fun at us like that. What happened to your sister?! I promised  
your mother before she died I would look after you girls and this  
happens! Tell me!" she comanded gribbing akanes shirt front. Soun  
jumped seeing her "n- nodoka-san! R- ranma... went out on another  
training trip! Ya, he and his father left a few days ago!" he said  
happily, thanking god ranma hadn't come home. Ukyo smirked evilly  
seeing the two slump slightly "oh but what are you saying mister  
tendo?! Mr saotome is right there!" she said pointing at the pale  
panda. They blinked at the panda for a minute then ranma got a  
pained look on her face "I'm sure, yes, thank you for your help who  
ever you are." she said anger barely contained in her voice. Nodoka  
sniffed blowing the girl off "kisumi please tell me what happened, I  
sware if someone did it on purpose I'll kill them myself!"  
  
Ranma cleared her throat and nodoka looked up at her "yes ranko?"  
she asked smiling slightly. Ranma smiled "I think I can find out a  
lot easier then badgering the poor girl mother. Remember my gift?"  
she said holding out her hand. Nodoka smiled in relief "I had  
indeed forgotten dear. Go ahead." she said smiling. Ranma nodded  
handing her bundle back to her as she unrapped hers and slung the  
sword across her back. He held her hands out as light started  
shimmering around them "theres a lot of violence that goes on  
here mother, its hard to sort out." she murmured softly. Nodoka  
blinked nodding. Soun came over to her "whats she doing saotome  
san?" he asked calmly. Nodoka smiled "ranko has a gift. She can  
tell what ever happened in a room by standing in it long enough its  
like a video that replays in her head. She can even pick up  
conversations."  
  
Ranma let her hands down to her sides and turned about to glare in  
rage at akane and ukyo. She walked towards them for a minute then  
sniffed turning away as she grabbed a kettle of hot water off the  
burner "whats that for dear?" nodoka asked, ranko didn't say a word  
as she walked over to the chained panda and poured hot water over  
his head. She stood back and looked calmly at genma "where is my  
brother father. What is the meaning of engaging him to those....  
psychos!" she yelled pointing at ukyo and akane. They jumped before  
both pulled out weapons "care to repeat that!?" "just what do you  
mean by that sugar?" they hissed. Ranma walked up to akane and  
after deftly taking her hammer pounded ukyo into the wall with it  
then slapped akane soundly.  
  
"Ranko! What is the meaning of this?!" nodoka yelled angrily. Ranma  
looked at her as she pointed to ukyo "this bitch is tainted mother!  
Shes poisoned this girl" she pointed at akane who hadn't gotten up  
"into hating ranma! No wonder ranmas never here mom! Both of them  
take advantage of his honorable nature to beat him mercilessly! I  
can count at least six hundred times ranmas been knocked senseless  
by one or both of these girls! And I'm not even going to talk about  
the the things the two talk about in here by themselves. Shes evil  
mom! Only a demon can be so cruel as to get pleasure from ranmas  
suffering." she declaired pointing at ukyo. The girl snarled getting  
back up "your going to regret that bitch." she growled. Ranma  
pulled her sword "just try me spatula girl." she hissed back. Ukyo  
looked at the sword for a minute before stalking out into the yard  
cursing viciously. Ranma glared at akane who was still sitting  
there looking wide eyed at her. Ranma nelt down by kisumi "why are  
you protecting her?"  
  
She looked away in fear "you don't know what you say." she  
whispered. Ranko looked at her "it was three years ago, you were  
scolding ukyo for some of the bad things she was making akane do.  
Do I tell your father what happened next?" she asked softly. Kisumi  
broke down and hugged her tightly "it... she had convenced akane  
boys were just something to hurt. I heard her say it in those  
words. Akane left the room crying... I confronted her about it."  
she looked at her father who was looking wide eyed "she struck me in  
the back of the neck, tripped me.... she grabbed my head and....  
shoved the..." she stopped looking at the rather tall orniments  
standing strait from the top of the chair she was sitting in. "She  
shoved my face into the top of the chair, and I blacked out from the  
pain.... she threatened to do the other one the same way if I told  
anyone."  
  
Akane was gapping in horrified shock as soun quietly boiled. Ranma  
nodded handng her mother the sword "I'd call that a closed case."  
she murmured pulling her kimono open to reveal her normal chinese  
clothes and undid her hair. She poured the rest of the water in the  
kettle over her head as she looked at their stunned family. "After  
you and ukyo tried to murder me akane I contacted mother and got her  
help in setting this up, after talking to nibiki we found out about  
ukyos role in ryogas death, kunos poisoning and maiming your sister.  
We've got proof for all of it." he looked at akane with sad eyes  
"maybe, kami willing, you won't go to prison for helping her." he  
took the sword back from nodoka "where are you going ranma?" soun  
asked "to capture a rabid animal."  
  
Ranma ran fast to catch up to the running girl, she had bolted the  
minute kisumi had confessed so didn't see ranma change or come after  
her. She yelped as something hit her in the back and she hit the  
ground hard. She got up and looked wide eyed at ranma standing in  
front of her with the sword in hand. He brushed his hair out of his  
face "your going no where ukyo. You have to pay for your crimes.  
You've killed two people and attempted to kill two others. As a  
martial artist I can't ignore that. I could ignore all the beatings  
you gave me because thats normal in my family. But trying to murder  
me ended my inaction. I've got proof of your crimes, your coming  
back to the dojo with me." he looked up seeing a cop take notice of  
them "officer! Can you assist me please?"  
  
Ukyo got up and lunged for ranma. He whipped back about and  
disarmed her with three strokes of the sword and knocked her out by  
smashing the pommel into her forehead "you there what is this!?" the  
cop yelled running over with his billy club out. Ranma smiled at him  
"thank you, I hate hitting girls and couldn't make myself do it  
unless she attacked. Can I borrow your handcuffs?" he asked rolling  
the girl over and cuffed her after the cop retrieved them "mind  
telling me whats going on?" he asked. Ranma held out his hand  
smiling "saotome ranma, saotome investigations. This girl is  
responsible for two murders and two attempted. When we got the last  
bit of evidance, a confession from one of her victims she split.  
Will you come back to the tendo hall with me? I suspect they've  
already called the police but it would be nice to have a witness to  
say she attacked me first." he said tossing the girl over his  
shoulder before retrieving the spatula she had used with a news  
paper to keep from putting his prints on it "you've been in the  
business for a while?" the cop asked. Ranma smiled "for a few years  
now sadly this case hit rather close to home. This girl tried to  
kill me a few days ago, I was one of the attempted."  
  
  
Everyone looked up as ranma tossed the girl onto the couch and  
nodded to the cops "this officer asisted me in restraining the  
suspect." he said and looked over the pictures, video tapes, and  
cassettes nibiki had provided he looked sad seeing akane weeping  
softly sitting in a chair, a pair of handcuffs pinning her hands  
behind her back. He cleared his throat "if you need anything else  
don't hesitate to ask guys. My father and I have been living with  
them for the past year so I got to know the two rather well. From  
what I know and personally saw ms tendo was present at one of the  
murders, she and had been talking with the victim before he was  
killed. I don't know if that was all she was doing, I had no  
personal knowledge of that inccident. But I was present at my own  
attempted murder and from what I could tell before the object struck  
me was that she was being forced to help, it seemed it was too heavy  
for the suspect to move herself. When I came to at the hospital I  
called my mother and she helped me out of it. That was when tendo  
nibiki hired me to help her remove the girl from her home."  
  
The cop nodded writing lightning fast "and what did ms tendo, the  
other suspect, do to get you to stand still long enough for the can  
to hit you?" he asked. Ranma looked at akane calmly "she hit me  
with an old fashioned war hammer sir." he said. The cop blinked  
then pointed at the large hammer by the door "you mean that thing?!"  
he exclaimed. Ranma nodded looking embarressed "akane hits me with  
the hammer on a regular basis sir. She just hit me harder then  
normal that time." he explained. The cop blinked a few time "she  
hit you more then once with it?! Why didn't you just deck her?" he  
asked confused. Ranma smirked taking his billy club and promptly  
broke it over his own head "because I let her sir. Tolerance  
training. If I didn't want her to do it she would never have layed  
a finger on me. And... sometimes I deserved a good ass kicking.  
I'm... not the easiest person to get along with. Plus she was  
goaded a lot of the time into doing it by the suspect. She hated my  
family like you wouldn't believe. She took pleasure in causing  
pain. From what I hear she didn't even flinch when she put out the  
eldest tendo girls right eye. Ms nibiki says she seemed to have  
enjoyed doing it, I haven't seen the tape and I don't really want  
to, everyone that knows kisumi knows she couldn't hurt a flea, ms  
kuonji is a desturbed person to say the least. To be able to do  
that.... well you all know kisumi, can you truthfully say anyone  
that would do that to her could be anything but evil to their very  
core?"  
  
After asking a few questions had been asked the two girls had been  
taken away and everyone sat around sadly. "I hope akane comes home  
soon." kisumi said softly. Nodoka hugged her soothingly "there  
there dear, everythings going to be ok from now on." she said softly  
and she smiled trembliously at her. She let her go and walked over  
to genma who was cheering up his friend, picking up her sword on the  
way. She slid it up under genmas neck and held it there "how dare  
you send that demon to our friends home? How dare you endanger our  
friends, and our children like that?!" she snarled pressing the  
sword into his throat to get him to look up at her "d- dear... I  
didn't know what else to do! I couldn't just run her off! She was  
only nine! I wasn't going to kill her!" he said in his defense.  
Soun waved her off "no nodoka san, I understood his reason for  
sending her to us then and I still do, I just wish I had known how  
truely corrupted that girl was. I could have gotten her help.  
Genma sent her to me in hopes I could find a kind way of getting her  
the help she needed. He could not in the condition he and ranma  
were in at the time. But akane wanted the girl to stay with us, we  
had just lost their mother so I couldn't bring myself to say no. My  
daughter lost her eye because of me." he sobbed burying his face in  
his hands. Genma started to sit up to comfort him when he  
remembered the sword. Nodoka removed it. She nelt and pulled both  
into her arms and started crying on them. Both men, disconfited,  
turned to comfort her.   
  
Nibiki looked at kisumi as she mimicked the awe on her older sisters  
face "moms a pro isn't she?" ranma asked softly as he nelt behind  
the two girls. They looked at him and nodded "I'm so sorry it took  
a four hundred and fifty pound object to wake me up. Can you ever  
forgive me?" he asked softly, a sorrowfully pleading look on his  
face. Kisumi smiled hugging him "its ok ranma, you couldn't have  
known." she said softly holding him close "what about akane? We  
can't let her go to prison." she whispered. Ranma smiled softly  
"don't worry about that dear, I'll surely be called in as a witness  
and I'll do my best to down play her role in it. But... I won't lie  
to them, if shes found guilty..... it just means I'll have a longer  
wait before I can marry her huh?"  
  
Soun was suddenly in his face "d- do you mean that boy?" he asked  
softly. He nodded "believe it or not, I love her. And ukyo trying  
to kill me gives me hope that we'll have a relationship. Ukyo  
killed ryoga because akane was starting to like him. So it makes me  
think akane could like me." he sighed then grinned "lets see when  
they'll allow bail to be posted." he said getting up and walked to  
the phone. He dialed a number and blinked hearing noise on the  
other side "hi I'm calling about the tendo girl that was brought in  
a little while ago." he said and winced "alright sir, I'll be right  
there. What? They're martial artists sir, theres not much we can't  
do." he said hanging up the phone as he started for the door "akane  
and ukyo are destroying the jail trying to kill each other."  
  
  
The cops standing by the door was frustrated by the fact that he  
couldn't get a good shot at either girl so was shocked when his gun  
was snatched from him and put on the table next to him as a man  
appeared out of no where and walked into the cell "ALRIGHT HOLD  
IT!!!" he roared sending a few of the frazzled cops away in fear.  
Ranma pulled up two cops and set them down away from one of the  
piles until he pulled ukyo out and popped her in the face with a  
rabbit punch and handed her to one of the cops "a strait jacket for  
the insane lady please." he said waving the cops aside from the  
crying akane and pulled her into his arms after she punched him "its  
ok akane, everyones ok." He said softly and she rapped her arms  
around him before starting to cry for real. He sat down on the  
bench by the wall and pulled her into his arms. She sobbed a few  
times "why are you being so nice to me? All I've ever done is hit  
you and call you names." she cried. He chuckled softly and she  
looked up at him. He smiled "akane, you aren't a bad person, your  
really rather nice when that witch isn't sniping at you. You only  
get mean when shes around. Shs not going to be around for long you  
know."  
  
She sniffed "I can't believe how stupid I was to think she was my  
friend, a friend wouldn't do that to kisumi." she said softly. He  
nodded holding her comfortingly "she had us all fooled. Its funny,  
everyone back at the dojo is blaming themselves for not stopping it  
before it got this bad." he said then smiled hugging her "remember  
that time when we were seven when mom visited you guys the same time  
pop and I did. Remember that?" he asked chuckling. She nodded  
giggling "you took one look at her and started bauling the minute  
she picked you up. Both of you cried for a good four hours, I  
remember I ran to kisumi and cried on her, all three of us were  
still grieving mothers death so seeing the two of you started dad  
and I crying. We didn't pull it together ourselves until dinner, and  
you didn't leave your moms lap for anything, not until she put you  
to bed. I remember, she asked if you could join me in my bed,  
didn't think you should be alone that night. You pulled me into  
your arms and fell instantly asleep." she layed her head on his  
shoulder "that was the first time I ever kissed you."  
  
"Oohh! Akane how forward of you!" nibiki said grinning. Both of  
them frowned at her "do you mind?!" both of them grumped then smiled  
at each other. "Come on you two, bails been posted."  
  
  
Ranma sat down on the couch with akane and listened to genma  
explaining their business to their mother, hoping to impress her  
enough so she wouldn't ask about ranmas curse "but what about his  
curse! He turns into a girl! I admit he does make amazing use of  
it, but how is it manly to understand the aplication of eye shadow  
and lip stick?" she asked plantively. Genma saw no recourse, he  
pulled his trump card "nodoka! I am ashamed of your close minded  
attitude! The woman I married would have understood!" he stood up  
and looked at her with rightious anger "you charged me with making  
the boy the best. And he is! Every skill I set him he mastered!  
He is the best at everything he puts his mind too. How many men do  
you know that can utterly convence a room of people shes a woman  
with a brief hand movement!? There is no man out there that is a  
better actor then our son! He can shift roles as easily as you can  
stand up. He's surpassed his father thats for sure! Learning to be  
a convencing panda is childs play compared to what ranma has learned  
to do with that body. Being a woman is hard when you grew up a man!  
But he over came the obstical and today is a private investigator  
first class, licensed! Besides that ranmas an acomplished martial  
artist far exceeding both tendo and I. He might even be a match  
for.... the master."  
  
Nodokas eyes widened at that "your serious?! You think he might be  
able to..." she stopped not wanting to invite trouble. He nodded "I  
planned for his eventual return. I pray he is dead in that cave but  
I doubt it. I trained the boy in everything that I could find, the  
curse gives him an edge that will surely be the masters downfall  
should he ever darken our door." she nodded thoughtfully "i guess  
your right, but its just rather strange, i didn't know you had the  
kind of imagination that would think of something like this." she  
smiled warmly at him "lets go up stairs dear, i've missed you so  
much and theres a lot we should talk abbout in private." 


	8. trio

ranma blinked at the three after the dust settled and looked  
slightly worried seeing the unresponsive look on the faces  
of all three of them. he walked forward and snapped his  
fingers in akanes face "hey, you guys ok?" he asked looking  
at all three of them. akane blinked looking at him "why  
wouldn't i be?"  
  
he looked relieved "i thought maybe shampoo had poisoned you  
for a minute." he said deeply relieved. akane blinked for a  
minute looking at shampoo and ukyo, shampoo had ambushed  
them and thrown a ball at the table in front of ranma trying  
to push the other girls away. ranma had jumped away as they  
struggled and the ball burst consuming all three of them.  
  
akanes face pinched with anger and malleted him out the door  
of the utchans and sniffed turning away. ranma blinked from  
his place in the garbage cans before getting back up and  
stalked back towards the door "what the hell did i do!?" he  
demanded. akane didn't look at him "go away ranma, i'll be  
home later." she growled warningly. ranma glared angrily,  
they had come here to tell ukyo they were going to be  
married "whats going on akane?!" he demanded. she turned and  
glared at him "i'll handle this myself! is that fine with  
you?!" she demanded. he frowned at her but looked worried  
"are you sure you'll be ok?" he asked. she turned back  
around dismissing him. ukyo stared at him stiffly "get lost sugar."  
  
  
i want to see this one turn into a painful trip before ranma finally regaiuns akane so be good to it. 


	9. revelations of impending doom

ranma snapped awake, something about his last dream. he rubbed at  
his head as he looked around the room uncertainly. he shook himself  
firmly "come on, snap out of it." he breathed standing up and rubbed  
his shoulders walking towards the door. he blinked seeing akane  
exiting her room clutching fearfully at p-chan. they blinked at each  
other for a minute before turning together and started down the  
stairs.  
  
ranma walked into the kitchen and after testing the tea pot on the  
stove made them a glass of tea and took it into the den where akane  
was curled up on the couch. she blinked when he handed her the glass  
and nodded her thanks sitting up to let him sit next to her. ranma  
looked at p-chans baleful glare for a second before looking at the  
closed patio door. he took a sip of his tea and settled in as akane  
leaned on him for comfort. he looked at her for a minute and sighed  
calming down slightly "so.... why are you awake?" she asked after a  
few minutes. he took a drink of his tea "i had a dream. it woke me  
from a sound sleep." he said quietly and blinked at her when she  
shivered moving closer to him "was it...about a man.... in dark  
robes?" she asked in a squeek. he nodded slowly contemplating the  
patio door "i was maybe four, or five in the dream.... i don't know  
why... but you were there."  
  
she nodded looking wide eyed at him "yes! we were in a sand box..."  
she said in a hushed voice. ranma nodded "then the man came. he  
handed me a cat.... after that i felt all funny, kind of like i did  
when happosai used that moxabustion pressure point on me. i can't  
remember what he said." he said softly taking another drink of his  
tea. akane nodded "the man opened his robes and.... a little boy  
came out and started bothering me. next he handed me a pig.... he  
said.... i would live to curse men in all forms. for some reason he  
ment p-chan too. he said that a friend would hide in an  
animals skin to torment me. a wolf in a friends clothing."  
  
he nodded scowling at p-chans shocked face "thats about right.  
wait.... he told me.....you will live the acursed live, harshly  
punished for crimes imagined and wrongs commited by others. you will  
come to curse the existance of all things feline and dispize pork."  
he said sitting up and after finishing his glass took her empty one  
and left the room. akane looked troubled at p-chan "your my friend  
right? you'd never hurt me.... right?" she whispered softly she  
looked back up as ranma came back into the room and handed her a  
refilled glass "thankyou." she whispered. he nodded sitting back  
down and looked at her "what do you think this means? i don't  
remember ever knowing you before pop dragged me here."  
  
she blinked a few times thoughtfully "i don't know, but i do know...  
i used to love that sandbox..... then after a time i refused to let  
mom take me there, i was scared of the place." she murmured. he  
blinked thoughtfully for a few minutes "i remember.... mom used to  
take me to a park every now and then.... but its too fuzzy to  
remember anything." he murmured softly. she looked down for a minute  
before looking back "but what does it mean?" she asked holding  
p-chan close. he looked at her "it means i knew i would come to hate  
cats and pigs.... and that you would learn to hate men." he mused  
softly. she looked at p-chan and felt a tingle of aprehention run  
down her spine "and what about the other part? the friend in the  
animal skin?"  
  
he didn't answer for a minute then looked at her "it means that even  
the most innocent of faces can hide the form of your enemy. think  
about it akane. with all the jusenkyo curse victms we know of in  
nerima.... who says the next dog you see in the street isn't someone  
that wants to kill you? some would say shampoos cat form is quite  
pretty, doesn't mean the amazon we all hate isn't under that skin. i  
just think you should be careful, the next animal you take in might  
be someone that is a little more serious about killing us then what  
we already have." he squeezed her shoulder gently before standing  
up and moved over to the doors and opened them. he sighed walking  
out into the backyard and sat by the pond "aren't you coming back  
inside?" she asked standing in the patio door, p-chan could be heard  
scrambling down the hall. he looked at the lightning sky "its  
starting to get light, pop will be up soon anyways." he  
blinked looking at her thoughtfully then smiled slightly "you want  
to help me annoy the hell out of pop?" he asked grinning impishly.  
she smiled slightly "sure."  
  
  
everyone looked up as genma went flying out out the dojos door to  
hit the pond. they gapped when akane came out next and glared at him  
"he said he was sparring with me baka! go eat some bamboo and be lazy  
like always!" she shouted at him before slamming the door closed.  
she turned back to a weakly cackling ranma. he slowly forced control  
on himself before standing strait then burst out laughing for real as   
he looked at her. she stomped her foot but couldn't hide the smile  
that she couldn't get rid of "oh will you stop it and finish showing  
me that move?!" he nodded smiling as he beckoned her forward.  
  
after an hour ranma and akane came back into the house and blinked  
when ryouga appeared and quickly bustled ranma back out into the  
dojo "what was that this morning?!" he demanded almost in a snarl.  
ranma looked at him for a minute before sitting down "i don't know.  
but her dream... it sounded a lot like you." ryouga snarled  
grabbing his shirt "take that back!" ranma looked him in the eye  
looking more stern then he'd ever seen him before "i will not.  
think about whats you've done ryouga. you decieve her on a dayly  
basis when you play p-chan, then you make true what the dream said  
by using what you learned to make her like you. you tell me, in the  
eyes of everyone that doesn't know you, is what your doing any less  
dishonorable then if you did take advantage of her?!"  
  
ryouga gapped moving away from ranma as if he had burned him "i- its  
not... like that!!" he exclaimed looking pale. ranma nodded "we both  
know that, you do it to thumb your nose at me. and to those that  
would judge you, thats just as bad as if you did it for the other  
reason." ryouga paled even more, too horrified to get angry "you....  
thats what you think?!" he breathed feeling weak in the knees. ranma  
crossed his arms "you never bothered to exsplain it to me ryouga,  
how can i not think that?" he asked quietly. ryouga looked at ranma  
for a minute before closing his eyes and shook his head "no wonder  
your always trying to seperate us." he said almost in a sigh. ranma  
shrugged "well... ya, i mean, that and.... i'm..... afraid..." he  
rubbed at the back of his head "i know your honorable ryouga, and  
i know you wouldn't do nothing to her.... but..... ok so it worries  
me!" he stalked across the dojo away from the shock on ryougas face  
"i would never...!" he bellowed. ranma looked back at him before  
stalking over and got in his face "how am i to know that?!?!? what  
am i supposed to think man?! you sleep with my fiancee while  
pretending to be her pet pig! your always trying to make her like  
you, always trying to take her from me! how am i supposed to know  
you won't do something to make her like you?!?"  
  
"what are you guys shouting about in here?" they jumped when the  
door opened and akane looked at them questioningly, already dressed   
after her bath, it was sunday so they didn't have to rush. ranma  
cleared his throat getting an idea "we were talking about this guy  
we both know." he said ignoring the threat ryouga shot at him, he  
walked over "you tell me what you think of him." he glared at ryouga  
after getting behind akane "this guy, we think he's a rather  
honorable man thats got some rather strange ideas about whats  
honorable." she nodded sitting down next to him and looked at  
ryouga curiously until he came over "he's not doing it to be  
perverted ranma." he growled. ranma shrugged "how are we to know  
that? he refuses to exsplain himself. he does something almost  
everyone but him would consider dishonorable and shameful. some  
would see it like some of the things happosai does." ryouga jumped up  
"they do not!!"  
  
ranma crossed his arms looking curiously at him with akane "oh? how  
do you know? have you listened to what those that know say?" he  
snarled softly but akane cut him off "whats he doing?" she asked.  
ranma stared ryouga down "he is taking advantage of a female friend  
of ours and using the things he learns by listening to her most  
private thoughts to ingrate himself to her. he doesn't see, or  
refuses to see, that in doing this he is damaging his honor and  
running the chance of making the girl hate him for the rest of his  
life. she put a trust in him and he betrays it everytime he uses  
the knowledge to make her like him more."  
  
ryouga started to get angry when his heart crumbled at the angry  
look on akanes face "whos this guy ranma?!" she demanded angrily.  
ranma shook his head "we can't tell, it would be like you telling  
us secrets about your best friends." he said shaking his head.  
ryouga nodded quickly feeling paniced at the idea of ranma telling.  
akane scowled at him but couldn't refute what he said "so hes a  
friend of yours?!" she said scowling harder. ranma shrugged "i don't  
know, somtimes i think we're enemies but then he does something that  
makes me like him again. its hard to exsplain. what do you think? do  
we ignore what he's doing and hope he figures out its wrong or do we  
drag him into an alley and beat it into his head? its gone on long  
enough, i'm just about ready to just kick his ass."  
  
akane and ryouga looked surprised at the grim sound to his voice  
"its ukyo isn't it?! someones playing with her feelings!" she said  
looking angry. ranma looked helpless "i can't tell." he said in  
apology "well, i say confront him about it and demand to know his  
intentions, and if he refuses, tell her." she said firmly. ranma  
nodded slowly "thats a way to go, but what about the oath?" she  
looked curious and he looked annoyed "he made us sware we wouldn't  
tell about the thing he's using to spy on her, seems he thinks of it  
as an embarressment." akane arched an eye brow at him "thats stupid  
ranma." she snorted. ranma motioned for her to continue. she rolled  
her eyes "it silly to uphold an oath that is harming someone you  
care for." she said stoutly. ranma looked at ryouga with a small  
smile on his face "what about you ryouga? we got the womans  
perspective on this, you tell me what you think." he said looking  
quietly smug. ryouga twittled his thumbs for a few minutes before  
looking back up "i- its wrong to break an oath like that! and i'm  
certain he has a good reason! he would never hurt her!" he protested  
weakly. akane shook her head "thats stupid ryouga, if hes doing what  
ranma said he is then he has already hurt her, if you guys say that  
he doesn't know its wrong then i'll believe you, but i suggest  
you confront him as soon as you can, men aren't to be trusted."  
  
ranma winced as akane stood up to leave "thats rather harsh." he  
comented. she snorted "you think so? in almost every case i've heard  
of, when a man gets a woman in a position to do something, he always  
does." she looked convenced. he looked hurt "hey! thats not fair! did  
i do anything with you when that spirit took you over?!" he  
demanded. she looked like she didn't want to admit it but nodded  
grudgingly "ok, i admit, even though it looked like i... was  
seducing you, you balked." she said it almost like it caused her  
pain. he stood up "and what about at kirins castle?! you were  
buck naked and all i did was give you my shirt!" he looked a little  
upset "then too!" she grated out looking like she wanted to leave.  
he crossed his arms "jusendo." he said pointedly. she scowled at him  
for a minute before throwing up her hands "alright! i admit it! your  
not like other men, happy?! i did say almost every case!" she pouted  
turning away. ranma stood firm "thats right! you won't find people  
like ryouga and me anywhere! i mean, the girls may cling, but i do  
not encourage them. and ryouga faints when a girl trys to do  
anything with him."  
  
ranma chuckled bouncing away from the angry young man. akane  
smirked "ok, i admit it, you two are better then the normal flock of  
boys." ranma smiled after her before looking back at ryoga "we  
know what akane thinks of this guy, what do you think needs to be  
done about him?" he looked grimly at him. he looked down for a  
minute before looking defencive "if i stopped she would get lonely.  
shes always depressed when i come back after a long trip, and she  
loves her p-chan." ranma nodded looking at the ground "i know. thats  
why i didn't work to hard to stop it." he nodded "that and the  
nightmares." he added. ranma blinked coming back over "like last  
night?" he asked softly. he nodded "for the last four days she wakes  
up and goes and sits on the couch." ranma looked wide eyed "so have  
i."  
  
  
akane looked up and blinked when ranma and ryouga sat in front of  
her "i told ryouga about that nightmare last night, he thinks... it  
might mean something. i wouldn't take it seriously..... if it only  
happened once." he bit his lip and blinked at the shock on her  
face "you've... had them before?" she whispered. he nodded slowly  
"for the last few nights." she looked worried "ranma.... so have i.  
it started... last sunday." he nodded looking slightly worried  
"same for me. can you remember any of the others?" he whispered.  
she shook her head "they scared me." she said softly. ranma nodded  
taking her hand absently. after a minute they blinked realizing  
the contact when ryouga cleared his throat in annoyance. ranma  
blushed bright red letting her go "what do you think it means?"  
she asked softly. ranma shook his head "i don't know, if you have  
one tonight... i'll come out in the hall when it wakes me." 


	10. lost chances? you got me on this one.

ranma sighed looking bored as he got off the transport and  
shouldered his pack "this blows." he groaned walking to a  
seat and sat down for a minute, he was not looking forward to  
this. he sighed, he did not look forward to a return trip to  
nerima.  
  
he was grumbling as he left the space port and took off along  
the superhighway looking bored and half tired. he grumbled  
to himself as he spotted the remaints of the distrect, the  
encroaching future had chewed away at it and now the  
highschool was no longer there, he mused that that was for  
the best, it was at the school she..... heres my turn off.  
  
ranma slowed halfway down the market street and blinked  
looking at the huge building where ukyos shop had been. he  
looked at it and shook his head "no wonder i'm broke." he  
sighed walking in the front door to be greeted by many women  
in kimonos that to him, spoke of how dangerous it was to  
mess with one. he looked around for a minute, thinking yet  
again, that it was a mistake coming here.  
  
"so. you came." he looked to his left and nodded shortly  
to the regal looking matron that had aproached him. ranma  
turned to look at konitsu "lets talk, i don't want to be  
here any longer then i have ta." he growled looking around  
at the spatula toting women dressed in mens work suits. the  
konnachi nodded leading him to a door at the side of the  
room. he motioned him to a seat "you don't even have the  
honor to morn with us." he spat. ranma sat down and looked  
at him "i may have married ukyo, but we both know she was  
your wife, it was your kid that killed her, not mine."  
  
konitsu tried to turn his anger on him but was too honest  
with himself to punish ranma for having nothing to do with  
ukyos death. he nodded covering his face "so why did you come  
back?" he asked. ranma sat back in his chair "i've been in  
the space merines for ten years now konitsu, ukyo used her  
position as my 'wife' to apropriate my acumulated earnings,  
she used it to exspand this franchiase your so proud of here.  
you know as well as i do the reason i joined the merines."   
  
konitsu nodded slowly, he had suspected that was where ukyo  
had gottn the money "what is it you want?" he asked. ranma  
looked at him "space merines are paid a lot of money  
konitsu, i should have about a three and a half mil in  
american in my hands, instead i have, as ukyos 'legally  
married husband' a restraunt business i want nothing to do  
with."  
  
konitsu jumped up yelling "you dare say this is yours?!?!"  
he roared. ranma nodded flipping him a piece of paper "under  
the laws ukyo and i married under, everything owned by the  
deceased goes to the other half of the married party,  
meaning i'm supposed to aportion out what the 'kids' get. in  
other words, the chain is mine. and on top of that, i find  
i'm the restraunts major backer due to my investment of my  
entire life savings. you may run this place, but i hold the  
purse strings."  
  
he sighed and looked at konitsu tiredly "the thing is, i  
don't want anything to do with this district, or this planet  
for that matter, too many people fucked me over while i was  
here for me to ever be comfortable on earth again." he  
looked tired. "what is it you want?" he asked. ranma smiled  
at him "i'm willing to sell the whole thing to you. since  
you know the whole thing, you know what its worth, and due  
try to be honest. remember that this was ukyos life, try not  
to dishonor her memory by buying cheap."  
  
  
ranma sighed again as he left the restraunt and smirked  
slightly "at least your a decent person konitsu, you don't  
see that often these days from earthers." he mused softly as  
he put the brief case in his bikes saddle bags and took off  
down the road, this next part is going to be worse.  
  
  
ranma pulled up outside the gates of a compound he didn't  
recornize, he frowned seeing the old tendo schools sign, but  
above that she saw a larger, more gaudy sign for the hibiki  
school. ranma grimaced thinking about his options and had  
just started turning the bike to leave when the gates opened  
and a silver haired soun and a streeked haired nodoka stared  
out at him. he sighed shaking his head "i guess there isn't  
much of a chance to run away is there?"  
  
they shook their heads "come in ranma, its been a long time  
since you last came to see us." nodoka said softly. ranma  
flipped up the visor on his helm "they don't think its cost  
effective to send a star ship out for a merine that wants a  
weekend pass mom." he grumbled rolling the bike between the  
two and excepted nodokas hug, and souns more enthusiastic  
one.   
  
"we're sorry to hear about ukyo ranma." soun said softly.  
ranma parked the bike and placed the helm on the handle  
bars "ya so was i, i stopped by to give my condolances to  
konitsu and settled with him." he grunted pulling the  
napsack and brief case from the saddle bags and followed  
them "what do you mean settled?" nodoka asked. ranma  
chuckled softly "i gave him the option to outright buy the  
restraunt from me instead of liquidating the place, figured  
i'd give ukyos kids a fair shake."  
  
nodoka looked down, as miserable as soun "ah, then you and  
akane have the same type of marrage then." ranma blinked  
stopping his efforts to light a cigar to blink at the  
goddess of business that had just come down the hall "well  
well, if it isn't the original millionaress." she smirked  
"and if it isn't the pride and joy of the collonal merines,  
i hear they've put an end to your fighting days." she  
murmured. ranma snorted "they gave me a metal and a desk,  
the four stars and everything, be proud mother, your boy  
reached four star general by the age of thirty two, theres  
only one other rank above mine."  
  
she smiled proudly "whats that?" she asked. he grinned  
"planetary governer. and as soon as i settle on a planet to  
collonize, i'll get that rank too, the whole regiment i  
comanded opted to collonize with me instead of going  
elsewhere. we're gonna start setting it up in a week." he  
said smirking at nibiki. she looked curious "your not going  
to stay here?" she asked. he looked like he tasted something  
back "fuck no. i hate earth. full of vampires and scumbags,  
the good people number one to five hundred here, naw, i want  
a clean world, for a clean start."  
  
he looked up and that sad tired look came back to his face  
seeing akane was standing in the hall looking at him. she  
cuddled the baby she held close looking forlornly at him  
before leaving the room. ranma shook his head "damn all  
teenagers to hell." he spat looking like he was thinking  
about leaving "what does that mean?" nibiki asked. he looked  
at her "just what it sounds like. if i had half the guts  
then as i do now, i woulda killed ryoga when he first showed  
up."  
  
nibiki nodded slowly "let me show you to a room."  
  
  
ranmas eyes snapped open hearing something open, and not the  
door. he scanned the room for a second before spotting the  
movement, he watched the person for a minute before  
recognizing the mousy little woman that akane had become.  
"akane." he sat up and looked at the slightly fearful look  
on her face as he turned the light on.  
  
he looked at her for a minute and sighed, she was the  
spitting image of the standard nursemaid, from clothes to  
demeanor. "shouldn't you be with your husband?" he asked  
grimly. she looked like she was about to colapse in on  
herself "hes in china, martial arts tourniment." she  
whispered. he nodded "so what can i do for you?" he asked  
almost sullenly. she bit her lip "i... dad told me ... what  
you said... about ukyo. did she really take all of the money  
you earned while in the merines?" she asked sounding like  
she was being greatly daring in speaking to him.  
  
ranma nodded looking at the floor in front of him "yep, she  
convinced the council that since i would be coming home to  
her, and that she could put it to better use then instead of  
now, she was able to bleed my account dry, i had to borrow  
from a friend to get that bike." she moved closer and slowly  
sat on the bed next to him, pleased when he didn't tell her  
off.  
  
he sighed "what happened akane?" he asked so softly she  
barely heard him. she looked down "you know what happened,  
shampoo drugged me into marrying ryoga." she whispered. he  
nodded getting up "ya, but that wasn't your excuse when it  
wore off was it? you stayed with him." he agreed looking out  
the window. she looked down "i didn't think you would take  
me. its a miracle he didn't get me pregnant." she said  
looking miserable. he nodded slowly "didn't the fact that...  
i only married ukyo because.... you told me there was no  
chance of there being an us. and when she threw me out, i  
did the only thing that seemed smart, i joined the merines  
and shiped off planet."  
  
he layed his head on the window "i don't think i've gone a  
day without feeling the agony of you rejecting me. i told  
you how i felt, told you the ryoga thing didn't matter to  
me, but you still turned me away." he looked at her "what do  
you want akane, i haven't been in the right frame of mind  
for this shit since i was twenty." she looked like he had  
slapped her and got up. she blinked as he was suddenly in  
front of her and holding her against his chest "i'm sorry...  
its just... first mom dumps me... then you dump me... then  
ukyo. the women i loved were hurting me left and right and  
no one wanted to help me."  
  
she looked up at his face and blinked seeing tears in his  
eyes. she took hold of his face and turned it to look at her  
"i haven't let ryoga touch me since the drug wore off, i was  
ashamed ranma, you were always there for me, but i wasn't  
there for myself when it came down to it. and... there you  
were, the perfect man, you didn't care that i had dishonored  
myself with ryoga, you loved me anyways." she shook with  
tears "i couldn't do that to you ranma. i was the dishonored  
one, i couldn't let you stain your honor like that."  
  
ranma held her while she cried, thinking about it. when she  
stopped he kissed her hard and long. when he let go she was  
looking wide eyed at him, not realizing he was baring her  
back to the bed. he pushed her down and gently pinned her to  
the bed "ranma we can't!" she gasped when he ripped her  
dress from her body "yes, we can. i'm a widow and as far as  
i'm concerned, you owe me. after this, we're level, on the  
same footing, what we do after that, we'll talk about."  
  
she looked shocked as he finished removing her clothes and  
started kissing her again as he pinched her clit and stroked  
the lips of her sex. she whimpered in need after a short  
time and he grinned, she was ready. he hooked a thump in his  
boxers and pushed them down "please... be gentle? its.. been  
a while." she said letting him continue. he stopped about to  
enter her when she said this and frowned "i won't hurt you,  
but i won't be gentle, my lifes a miserable shit hole, and  
its partly your fault, this way, i punish you, and we both  
get what we want."  
  
he took hold of her hips and suddenly flipped her over on  
her stomach "yes! punish me, i deserve it!" she cried  
lifting her hips up for him. he leaned over her and sank  
himself all the way into her in a powerful thrust. she cried  
out in shock as she was suddenly impaled by the man she  
loved, and welcomed each painfully uncomfortable, gloriously  
pleasurable thrust. she cried out again as she orgasmed,  
against all her efforts to not enjoy it, ranma still made her  
punishment a pleasure. she gripped the sheets and squeezed  
him, hoping his sharp stabbing motions will hurt more.  
  
he grunted as she came again and stopped panting softly "i  
think your enjoying this to much." he growled, smirking  
softly, he wanted her to enjoy it. he pulled himself from  
her and spread her ass cheeks and rubbed some of her juices  
around the edges before corkscrewing his finger into her.  
she yelped in shock looking back at him "your going to do  
that!?" she exclaimed. he looked at her as he pushed himself  
back in her and pumped gently "your not going to be  
satisfied unless your sore in the morning." he grumbled  
"but... i wanted you to cum in me. ryogas refused to even  
look at me since i rejected both of you. hes made me a  
servent in my own home."  
  
he blinked a few times and pushed another finger up her ass  
and started thrusting purposefully gritting his teeth  
feeling himself close now that he stopped holding himself  
back. he groaned reaching under her and pinched her clit  
"cum with me, when i leave, i want you with me." he hissed  
in her ear as she panted into the matress and screamed with  
him as he came deep inside her, driving her consciousness  
from her.  
  
  
nibiki looked up as her office door opened and smirked at  
ranma "good show, akane refused to let anyone touch her  
because of the guilt she felt over hurting you." she  
murmured looking admiringly at him. ranma nodded "i was  
afraid i'd have to ream her to help her get over it, some  
women can't take that sort of thing."  
  
she blinked at his candidness "you have changed." she said  
admiringly. he nodded sitting down "i need two things from  
you." he took out one of his cigars and lit it, sitting near  
the window "i need to know if you have any combat specs on  
ryogas enhancements." he said and she looked wide eyed at  
him "your going to kill him."  
  
he nodded slowly "he did to akane what ukyo did to me,  
refused a divorce so he can keep his hands on the dojos  
income. hes reduced her to the status of a handmaid in her  
own home. second..." he leaned forward and looked her in the  
eye "i want your company."  
  
she almost choked before realizing from the smirk on his  
face that he was joking "do you remember a few years ago  
that story about that element that can produce a type of  
super fuel that'll shoot a ship across the galaxy in days  
with the right type of engine?" he asked softly. she nodded  
and her eyes widened "its real?"  
  
he nodded "i hope you keep this room proof against bugs." he  
murmured. she nodded tapping a key on the phone on her desk,  
he jerked seeing his pants leg catch fire "god damn it." he  
put it out and looked ruefully at her "i knew someone was  
out to jump my claim." he sighed before looking at her "i  
found this planet see, earth norm, if a little more  
boring then earth." she looked confused and he smiled  
"earths weather system is eratic and volital. this place is  
lucky to get a small typhoon." he chuckled. she nodded "so  
what does your paradise have to do with the fuel element?"  
  
he smirked pulling a small bag out of his pocket and pulled  
a small glass cube with a small brown stone with a red sheen  
to it "i found this, in a rock pile from a rivers lead off.  
the river bed was bloated with the stuff." he grinned "this  
little grain of sand, can power one of your transports for  
twenty trips to and from mars. think about it." nibiki  
looked hungry "how do you know this?" she breathed. he  
smirked putting it away "i took it to a research ship a few  
parsecs away and after slagging their radio i had them test  
it, the results were better then i thought."  
  
she rubbed her chin thoughtfully "whats your part in this?"  
she asked. he grinned "they retired me as a four star, that  
means that i get my pick of planets to settle, with the  
money i have and the fact that every man in my regiment is  
pitching their lot in with me, we have enough money to buy a  
rather large company." he smirked at her and she grinned  
getting the idea "but you have a better idea." he nodded  
"see, when the goverenment finds out that we've dragooned a  
planet rich in a resource their going to try to kick us off.  
but, lets say for silly talk, you felt.. eh, you didn't like  
earth anymore. your long time friend has this planet all to  
himself, whats to say... he wouldn't be glad to welcome such  
a large corperation to relocate there, and oh my, together  
they realize, they are rich, since they can't touch a  
military grant backed by a corperations funding and since  
they were invited to move there... they would have home  
steaders rights, as well as mining rights, under the  
planetary governor, myself."  
  
he smirked at the doubt on her face "think about it, not  
only will you be close to the source, but you'll be living  
with a regiment of the most highly decorated merines in  
three galaxies, hell, all of them are practically rocket  
scientists, i myself can build you an atmospheric escape  
pod from the parts on a car. you'll have, communications  
exsperts that know more about the classified military grade  
stuff you civies would thing was magic, all of them are old  
hands at space warfare, so all of us could work on defences,  
with the supplies we can build our own ships and weapons,  
all we need, is a company willing to throw in with us.  
you'll have a defence force strait from the devils  
nightmares."  
  
she grinned in pleasure thinking about it "how do you mean  
communications?" she asked. he grinned pulling out a holo  
projector "with the technology we all are familiar with, we  
can turn the other planets in the system into monsterious  
transmition equiment, we can set up relays that can get you  
the data quicker then you can get it in this room." he  
chuckled letting her look at it with the lights off. she  
shook her head "i think you offer more then i need."  
  
  
ranma came back into the room they had given him about sun up  
and saw that akane was just waking up "hey there sunshine,  
you look better then you did when i arrived." he chuckled  
setting the large case he held in his hand on the ground and  
hit the button on the handle whistling a nice little tune.  
the box popped open with a snap and he pulled the top off to  
reveal a suit of armor. akane looked at it and gasped seeing  
the labels "this is your battle armor!" she gasped. he  
nodded "yep, smuggled it out so they wouldn't recycle it."  
he said picking up a gaunlet and pulled the small box off  
the wrist. he showed her the underside, all the small egg  
like things had red stripes on them "concusive mini frag  
granades, for those times when you just gotta spit something  
in their face."  
  
he did the same with the other gauntlet before pulling a  
small packet of disks of out his pocket "i love these  
things, none lethal but whoa baby what a mess it can make!"  
he chuckled popping the clip out of the rist launchers and  
carefully put them away before loading the disks in an empty  
launcher and clapped it back on the gauntlet "why would you  
need that here?" she asked. he looked at her "ryogas not  
going to let me take you without a fight love."  
  
he looked at her for a minute before pulling her into his  
lap and looked her in the eye "i love you, theres slim to no  
chance i'm coming back to earth once i leave it." he kissed  
her softly "lets please forget the last ten years and start  
over? i want you.... please say you'll come with me? you'll  
love the world i found, its beautiful, at dusk, the sea  
turns all golden and ranbow like formations fill the air for  
a few minutes, its breath taking."  
  
she smiled leaning into him "but... ranma, i still feel like  
i don't deserve you." she whispered softly. he smiled "then  
i guess a repeat of last night is in order huh?" he said  
kissing her chin "we can continue to do it, until you feel  
like i do, that the only think you need to do, is come with  
me, or we find out your carrying my child." he said grinning  
happily at that idea. she smiled back at him "yes, i'll... i  
want you to take me until i've paid for hurting you." she  
agreed. ranma face faulted "urk... then i guess that means  
your coming with me, because i can't continue to punish you  
if i'm not here." he said reasonably. she giggled covering  
her mouth and nodded "i guess it does."  
  
  
when the two came down to breakfast everyone blinked seeing  
that akane was wearing a pair of ranmas pants and a shirt  
too large for her, clearly stating whos room she had stayed  
in last night. nodoka covered her mouth in shock "but son!  
this is so improper!" she was shocked. ranma shrugged "try  
spending six weeks rapped up in a thermo blanket buck naked  
with a squad mate, and both of them men, don't tell me what  
improper is! i almost got court marshaled when he groped  
me."   
  
she looked as sick at the others "why did you almost get  
court marshaled?" akane asked hoping. ranma smirked at her  
"i spaced him and kept the blanket myself. our ship had been  
damaged and our powerplant couldn't keep the heaters going,  
the ships temperature dropped below minus two hundred, the  
thermos were like life jackets for extremely cold  
temperatures. the scumbag got me wet and tried something, i  
broke his neck, my squad mates, the greatest men and women in  
the space forces." he raised a glass to the wall "suited him  
up and catapulted him into the gas giant we were stranded  
around. said he'd thought he could rig the radio antenna and  
got knocked off the side of the ship by a passing rock, they  
were pissed because i wouldn't share the blanket with anyone  
else."  
  
he looked at them "at that temperature water crystalizes,  
hot water was a dream." they nodded understanding "so how  
long were you stuck out there?" tofu asked interested, ranma  
grinned around the table at the people, akane sat next to  
him, nibiki sat by her side. kisumi sat with one teen and  
two kids between her and tofu. akari, who had refused to  
look at either of them since they entered, had the baby ranma  
had seen akane with and a six year old, suprisingly, nodoka  
had a small boy between her and soun "eight weeks, the girls  
in the squad thought it was so hilarious when the body's cycle  
kicked in and let me exsperiance my first period. the ship  
that rescued us never found out why the captain was so pissed  
off. the brass desided to view it as anger at letting my  
transport get holed."  
  
nibiki started the laughing and most of the others piped in,  
even his mother. he glared soarly at them and looked at the  
teens blinking in confusion "watch this." he said pulling a  
small box off his belt and the field they didn't realize was  
surrounding him blinked out "its a low level force field that  
rapidly heats water thrown at me. i designed it." he set it  
down and akane poured a glass of water over his head. nodoka  
almost shreeked when the rinkle all of them had over looked  
became a light pink scar running across her left eye and  
cheek. she smirked "hey, great job they did in regrowing my  
eye huh?"  
  
nodoka was looking closely at it "what did this to you?" she  
asked. ranma shrugged "buddies granade launcher got pegged,  
blew up a few inches from my head, helmet absorbed most of  
it, sent the face plate into my face though. woke up in a tank  
filled with regen chems." she shrugged taking the tea cup  
kisumi handed him and poured it over his head. the kids  
looked awed by it. he chuckled putting the device back into  
its holder. the boy between soun and nodoka came around the  
table and looked at him "are you my brother?"  
  
ranma blinked at him interestedly "well, you have my eyes,  
my cheek bones, souns mouth... yep, your my brother  
alright." he said scrubbing the little boys head. he grinned  
"is it true you killed a dragon?" he asked. ranma chuckled  
and nodded "yes i did. a mean bugger he was! but i've kill  
lots meaner things since then."the boy looked wide eyed at  
the idea "like what?" he asked ranma grinned "well, i met  
this here thing, looked like a cross between a duck, and a  
tyranosaur, big bugger, and twice as mean as that dragon."  
he held up his finger before reaching into his sleave. the  
next thing they knew he was pulling a inch and a half wide  
tube out of his shirt, it was a foot long "this was one of  
its smaller teeth, the rest would require a transport to  
carry."  
  
he grimaced "too bad it was only a infant though." he  
remarked shaking his head. "why is that?" kisumi took the  
bait innocently. he chuckled "we had to evac the planet when  
its mother tried to eat our drop ship!" he cackled holding  
out his hands "this kid was sixty feet tall, they sent me  
out to kill it when it started harrassing the drop ship, its  
mother tried to eat it in one bite. we had to launch a nuke  
in its face to get it to let go, as far as i know, it  
survived the blast, the captain of the ship that had taken  
us there kept the tooth we found in the ships hull, mounted  
in the bridge as a trophy."  
  
akane giggled "come on! your kidding right?" she said  
looking over the tooth clutched reverently in the boys  
hands. ranma shook his head pulling a holo projector out of  
his belt and hit the button on it a few times, flipping  
through pictures of verious scenes with troopers in armor  
or just sitting around drinking beer. he blushed seeing one  
and looked apologetically at nodoka when they realized what  
that trooper was doing with her rifle "i thought i had  
gotten rid of that!" he laughed then stopped at one showing  
a great gapping hole with white spikes in the scene "this  
picture was taken from the dropships bridge."  
  
he chuckled flipping it a few more times and came to a  
picture of ranma holding a huge gun standing in front of a  
large green and black head, the rows of teeth next to his  
head going far up into the top of the holo "took six shots  
from that thing to drop it." he said shaking his head. the  
kids breathed in awe "were you scared?" one of tofus kids  
asked. ranma sat strait "a space merine can laugh at the  
devil at his scariest!" he said heroically then leaned close  
"because we seen stuff a lot scarier!" he looked frightened  
and grinned when they giggled. he smirked "i remember one  
time, a buddy of mine, he done got himself eaten whole by  
this... large crab thing, well we tracked it for a mile and  
sure enough, we found the thing layed out dead on its side,  
seems its stomach disagreed with the grenades he set off in  
it." he said smirking "did he survive?!" another one asked  
waiting excitedly. ranma shook his head "nope, the blast  
shattered his face plate and the things belly turned him into  
a bag of nasty gelly and bones, icky."  
  
  
soun chuckled coming out onto the porch next to him and lit  
a pipe "your good with kids." he murmured. ranma shrugged  
"hey, you spend a lot of time riding herd on a bunch of jar  
heads and kids are a sinch." soun smiled "the service seems  
to have loosened you up a lot." he murmured. ranma shrugged  
"eyes wide shut, thats me. finding out what life really is  
tends to bring a dreamer to his knees."  
  
soun nodded "what are your intentions concerning akane?" he  
asked softly. ranma thought about it before taking a drag on  
his cigar "i'm going to demand ryoga release akane from her  
marrage and restore honor to akari. shes had two kids by him  
and their not married." soun nodded "shes had to bare a lot  
of things for love of that man." ranma nodded "if he  
refuses... i'll make akane a widow."  
  
  
at dinner he was confronted by the kids "tell us another  
story!" they chorused. ranma seluted with his chop sticks,  
before eating the pickle in them "ok.... lets see... nope,  
can't tell that one, at least for a few years.... ah! we  
were ridin' patrol though this wierd forest, the docs swore  
the trees were made of silk so we were sent in to figure out  
why the retreval teams kept disappearin'! well i was in this  
one part of the forest, when i bumped into a low hangin'  
branch." he rung his hands "the next thing i know, this  
thing, it looked like the grand daddy of the biggest,  
ugliest, and ickiest spider the devil ever cringed from. it  
had twenty glowin' red eyed and its teeth was in its belly.  
well, i end up strung up in the trees with this thing tryin'  
ta get me in its belly." he held up his arm and flexed his  
muscles looking brave "well, i screamed like a woman until  
someone came along and shot it." he cackled at the  
disgruntled look on the boys faces "it couldn't penetrate  
my armor but wasn't givin' up on its snack, well i was  
stuck, if i done like my friend with the crab it would shatter  
my face plate, i didn't want to be an icky puddle, so i  
screamed into my radio until someone came around to shut me  
up. then they had the nerve to ask me what my intentions  
towards the poor thing were."  
  
he grimaced "they thought i was playing with it!" he said  
looking weirded out. they chuckled "seems the 'trees' were  
the base of a large suspended city of spiders. see, they  
were breaking apart the city's supports so they sent out  
gaurds to look after them. the langauge team had a bitch of  
a time learning how they comunicated while the things were  
chewing on the cages we sent them in with, one of the poor  
fellows is in a padded room over coming a severe case of  
icky."  
  
"whats that?" tofus youngest daughter asked. he grinned  
"well icky is when you see something slimy and just... icky!  
its where you see it and just gotta shiver and rub your  
arms. like when you walk into a spider web." he said making  
a face. she nodded wrinkling her nose "icky!"  
  
  
ranma pulled his bike to a stop and leaned against a light  
post before lighting up a cigar and waited. after a minute  
another bike pulled up and he grinned at his friend "brock.  
hows your reunion going?" he asked. he snorted "my mother  
remarried and my sisters husband ran out on her and three  
kids."  
  
ranma nodded taking a drag "same with my mother, got a  
little brother now. wife died in child birth, sold her  
restraunt to the father. boon though, got my girl back and  
her sisters gonna throw in with us and relocate her company  
there." he growled holding up a pamplet "fuck man! you got  
tendo corps to come with us?! they're weapons manufacturers!"  
he got on his knee "can i call you god?"  
  
ranma chuckled "yes you may, not only is she the sole owner  
but shes gonna get our stuff for us at a tenth the price we  
thought we would have to pay, shes 'donating' her companies  
flagship as transport as our 'sponsoring' company." he  
chuckled. he whistled "thats sweet, the gov will be forced  
to hang back a lot longer now." ranma nodded "the story is  
that shes relocating her company there after excepting an  
offer from me to get away from this shit hole, and the fact  
that we can set up quicker with comerce next door."  
  
he nodded "your our god, i'll spread the news, what do you  
want us to buy?" he asked. ranma grinned "civy things if  
you can swing a few jets please do, we can retro fit them  
there. our corperate goddess is supplying all the  
military equip we may need, all we need to do is put it  
together once we arrive." he nodded looking admiring "any  
chance someones entered a bid on the place?" he asked. ranma  
grinned "yep! our partner entered one bare minutes before i  
entered ours. tomarrow we'll go in together and post a dual  
claim."  
  
he nodded "they would be suspicious of a company alone but  
since you threw in with them their more likely to trust  
them, your as clean as a sheet of paper, regular boyscout."  
  
  
ranma had just gotten off the bike when it exsploded forcing  
him to dodge to the side. he looked up and smirked at ryoga  
when he came out of the shadows "your going to regret coming  
home bastard!" he snarled. ranma shrugged waiting "thats big  
talk for an honorless father of bastards." he taunted  
looking suddenly disaproving "you slimy bastard, you force  
akane to stay in a marrage she doesn't want then you force  
akari to disgrace herself just so you got something to  
fuck!"  
  
ryoga blanched then snarled "you shut up about them!!" he  
yelled. ranma smirked at him "you only just got back haven't  
you?" he mused then chuckled standing strait "hibiki ryoga!  
i here by challange you! if i win you will release akane  
from her vows and for gods sake give akari her honor back!  
do you know how humiliating it is to know your kids can't  
ever be recognized because your not married to the man your  
sleeping with?!" he demanded. ryoga launched himself at him  
"shut up and fight!" he yelled throwing lightning fast  
punches, faster then the chestnut fist thanks to his  
implants. ranma snorted blocking all of them and slammed him  
into the outer wall "do you think you can take a space  
merine boy!? hell i've taken things that would laugh at you  
for daring to raise a fist at it! hear me now hibiki! if you  
do not yield to this i will be forced to end your life! at  
least your death will end some of the dishonor you force on  
her everytime you go to her bed!"  
  
ryoga stopped for a minute and tensed up "you shut up! you  
don't know what your talking about!" he shouted. ranma  
snorted "i know that you refused to end a marrage that  
neither of you wanted and proceeded to make akari a nameless  
mistress!" ryoga screamed enraged and ranma smirked waiting  
for him to get close enough then fired his wrist launcher at  
him. ryoga screamed in pain as the thing hit his chest and  
eletricity burst around him before a white light flashed  
and he crumpled to the ground "hey! what'd you do to me!?!"  
he yelled struggling to the one leg that worked and his right  
arm. ranma pulled out a water hose "EM pulse grenade, it  
fries out any and all electronic device around you."  
  
he motioned to the water hose "do i do it ryoga? you  
remember what happened to shampoo, she got breast implants  
and a langauge module implanted. you saw what happened." he  
said softly. ryoga looked horrified "you... you would do  
that... to me?" he breathed. ranma arched an eye brow "hell  
i should do it because of what you did to my bike! but no, i  
won't do it." he got in his face "if you sware on what honor  
you have left that you'll end that sham marrage and make  
akari official."  
  
ryoga snarled softly at him "what? so you can have akane?!"  
he demanded. ranma got closer in his face "i already have  
her, make your choice quick, those implants i fried are  
gonna start hurtin'." ryoga looked at the hose then at the  
others, they had seen the whole thing, he paled seeing akari  
look down from his question and nodded "i sware."  
  
ranma tossed the hose away and pressed a small device to his  
belt "it heats cold water." he explained as he helped him  
into the house. after the hospital had been called and he had  
been taken away akane and akari aproached him "would...  
would you have really killed him?" akarl asked softly. he  
nodded "you set aside your honor for the clueless idiot, if  
he had made you do it knowingly i would have killed him. no  
man has the right to force a woman to bare his children out  
of wed lock."  
  
  
ranma was sitting on the stone lantern with his back to the  
wall when his little brother came out and looked at him  
"how did you dodge his punches?" he asked. ranma looked down  
at him and smirked reaching over and snagged the back of his  
shirt. he yelped until he realized that he was bringing him  
to sit on his lap "i trained in our family's martial arts  
since i was four, its hard for me not to win a fight. then i  
joined the space merines and learned the price of learning  
the art of war. its not the most rewarding path, but it  
does have some good points, its a way of life really. if  
your not sure you want a life with the art and little else,  
then you should take up something else."  
  
he looked troubled "but you did it! you got lots of neat  
things!" he protested. ranma looked at him sadly "did you  
ever know the panda? ol' man genma?" he asked. the boy  
nodded wrinkling his nose "i didn't like him." ranma nodded  
"i grew up with him. i never had a choice in if i wanted to  
learn the art. my pop forced it on me, said it was my duty.  
he took me from momma, i didn't see her for the next twelve  
years. you saw how momma acts around me right?" he asked. he  
nodded "she acts like she does when a salemen she wants to  
leave comes over." he agreed then his eyes widened in  
horror.  
  
ranma chuckled slightly looking away "ya, like someone she  
wants to go away." he looked at the boy "martial arts ruined  
my life bro. pop took me from mom when i was younger then  
you, and i had no friends, rare was it i got to have fun.  
then when he brought me back... mom didn't like me anymore."  
he blinked his eyes a few times "everything i have, i got for  
myself, they turned me into someone only others like me can  
like, i only started having friends when i joined the  
merines, because they were like me, no one let them have  
peace when they were younger. i'm thirty two, and i'm only  
now starting to make something for myself, everyone wanted  
things from me, they never let me have what i wanted."  
  
his brother sat there silently for a few minutes before  
hugging him "do you think mom will hate me when i get  
older?" he asked softly. ranma chuckled "no worries bro,  
parental hatred is reserved for the oldest son. and thats me  
you know? your lucky though, your the baby of the family so  
everyone will love you." he looked up and saw tears in  
ranmas eyes "do you love me?" he asked. ranma rubbed his  
head "of course, why wouldn't i?" he looked down "i don't  
know, mom said you might hate me." ranma made him look at  
him "kanada, look at me." he looked deeply in his eyes "moms  
got a lotta funny ideas about what being a man is, just  
remember that she is not a man, only men really know what  
being a man is like, and what ever you do... do ever, in all  
your life, sign a contract with her. mom and pop ruined my  
life by signing a contract. don't ever sign one or let  
someone do it for you. you're your own person and they don't  
have the right to force you into something you think is  
wrong."  
  
ranma let the boy go and sat there miserably for the next  
half hour before soun and kisumi came out to frown at him  
"did you have to ryle the boy so much ranma?" soun asked  
softly. ranma took a drag on his cigar "givin' mom the third  
degree huh?" he asked. soun nodded "he came in demanding to  
know if we had any contracts about him. after we said no he  
demanded to know why nodoka signed a contract to make you  
miserable."  
  
ranma chuckled softly "i'll be, someone who stuck up for me,  
for once, kind of wish i'd had a brother growing up." he  
shook his head before looking at the two "is he really wrong  
soun?" he asked softly. soun nodded "you over simplified  
it!" he growled. ranma looked at him "i lived here for three  
years before shampoo did her thing, do you remember anyone  
saying anything about the concept of ranmas birthday?"  
  
soun started to say something when the realization made his  
mouth drop open "you... never?" he asked aghast at the idea.  
ranma laughed shakily "sure, my friend threw me a party this  
year. before that... not after pop snatched me, my friends  
were shocked three years ago when the records officer  
comented on the date to a friend. they were horrified that i  
didn't know what birthdays were for, i mean, i knew everyone  
had one, but i never realized that i should have... had one  
too." he chuckled wiping the tears from his eyes "but what  
the hell, i was ranma, everyones whiping boy, not even worth  
the two cents that they used to conceive me."  
  
he looked at kisumi when she touched his arm "oh ranma...."  
she started before hurrying back into the house "but thats  
the past, from now on, i'm out to do things for me and those  
who are my family, those that want me. its sad, i never  
really felt wanted until after being in the merines a few  
months, everyone back here was either an enemy or they  
didn't care enough to love me. but they loved me, they took  
pride in the fact that i was one of them, we took for  
granted the fact that we would always back each other up,  
like a real family i hear."  
  
ranma looked up from his seat and blinked at akane, soun had  
taken up a sitting position near him so ranma would see  
that he wasn't alone in his misery. ranma smiled slightly a  
her "whats the damage?" he asked and chuckled when she  
blinked in confusion "its a military phrase, meaning what  
did i do and how do you think i should fix it?" he asked and  
she smirked at him "your mothers in an unholy snit about you  
cluing kanada to what she was like when she was still  
married to genma, she really has changed ranma."  
  
he raised an invisable glass "i'm glad to hear it, bro don't  
need that kind of pain. too bad the frosty disgust still  
applies to me huh?" he asked stubbing out the last of his  
cigar on the heel of his boot. he jumped down and sighed  
"great, now i gotta get another bike." he muttered  
remembering the slag ryoga had made of his other one. he  
shook his head "don't worry soun, i'll get a room in a  
hotel, keep from upsetting the kids with the truth."  
  
  
ranma was sitting disconsolately in the hotel bar looking  
out at the city when someone jostled his elbow. he looked up  
and blinked at soun and tofu "hey there step dad! step  
brother in law." he greeted them jovelly. soun sat down next  
to him "we want you to come back ranma." tofu said softly.  
ranma blinked at him "why? i'm shipping out for good in a  
few days." he said and tipped a glass to the city below him  
"your what?!" soun exclaimed. ranma nodded almost bowing  
"yep! my platoon brothers and sisters and i all got together  
and desided that we don't like earth all that much, i mean,  
wheres the trees?! where i grew up trees were everywhere!  
now you gotta go inna mall or someones yard to look at a  
tree. well i'm sick of it! i joined the merines to save the  
world from turning ugly, and i find out... our own people  
did it for the bad guys!"  
  
he looked at soun "what the hell happened to that tree that  
was in the back yard!?!? it was one of the tallest in nerima  
and now its gone! what the hell was i fightin' for?! the  
earth i fought for no longer exists! i killed everything  
they tol' me to kill to keep my earth safe! 'cept it don'  
exist anymore. those that didn't care about keeping us safe  
ruined it!" he looked about to cry "the planet itself has  
rejected my efforts. i had nothin' but the dirt under my  
feet and the trees around me, now thats gone. this place  
ain't my home. so i'm turning colonist! got a good world no  
ones touched yet, trees everywhere and these cute little  
monkey things that love humans. we're gonna go there, and  
we're gonna keep the bad guys out. they turned earth into  
one big factory, well not gonna happen to our world!"  
  
the bartender shook his head as soun caught him after he  
crumpled from tofus tap on the neck "poor guy, how long was  
he out?" he asked. soun sighed "ten years." he said. the  
guy whistled "a career officer then! two years is the limit  
they set because few want to be in the merines that long, he  
musta been a real patriot." soun nodded "ranma felt very  
proud of earth. hes just in shock over what its turned  
into." the man nodded "ya, most of the people that survive  
service ship out to the collonies like that, disheartened by  
the fact that their sacrifice wasn't worth much."  
  
tofu looked at the man "you a merine?" he asked. he nodded "i  
knew my broken hearted brothers and sisters would sooner or  
later stumble across me in their grief, so i stayed put and  
when i see them, i talk them into shiping out. earth is a  
dinosaur thats going to be a dead planet due to our own  
stupidity. at least i know some of the worthy will survive  
this planets last gasp."  
  
  
ranma groaned waking up slowly and blinked at the ceiling  
over his head. he frowned, it didn't look like the top bunk  
in his room on ship, was he on leave? he sat up and blinked  
at the room around him then sobered seeing his travel kit.  
he sighed looking around him again and got up. he yawned  
pulling his boxers on and looked out into the hall before  
heading for the bathroom, absently rubbing the head of the  
child he passed.  
  
he blinked when he finished noticing his mother  
waiting in the hall "i see you've taken up your fathers  
hobby of drinking yourself unconscious." she said  
disaprovingly. ranma didn't reply as he passed her and  
walked back to his room to dress. he blinked seeing akane  
in the door way "you look better then i would have  
suspected." she murmured. ranma snorted "tofu put me out, i  
can drink happosai under the table three times over and  
still be able to kick ryogas ass."  
  
she blinked "you didn't drink yourself out?!" she exclaimed.  
ranma chuckled slightly "my body's partially immune to  
alcoholic drinks, i once drank the comanding officers of our  
regiment under the table on a bet, on leave of course." he  
said winking at her. she giggled following him into the room  
"my divorce was offical three hours ago." she murmured. he  
stopped what he was doing and looked up at her. he grinned  
walking over and took her into his arms "well yah for small  
pleasures." he murmured pulling her tight against him and  
grinned at her "time for another punishment?" he asked  
huskily. she nodded grinning from ear to ear "oh yes, i need  
you to punish me."  
  
"ah... ranma can i please speak to you?" they looked up  
seeing his mother in the door. ranma sighed "right now mom?  
can't it wait a few hours?" he asked. nodoka shook her head  
sharply and he rolled his eyes letting go of akane "let me  
get my pants." he muttered pulling the things on and  
followed her, looking like he was really annoyed with having  
to do it.  
  
when they got to the room she was taking him to she slapped  
him "how dare you tell your brother such lies!?!" she hissed  
angrily. he looked disinterested "and what is it that you  
think was a lie?" he asked examining his fingers. she glared  
"you told him i purposefully ruined your life because of  
that damned oath!" she answered. ranma looked at her "didn't  
you?"  
  
she moved to hit him again and blinked when he was suddenly  
on the other side of the room "if you weren't pressuring me  
into doing the worst things you were demanding i stop doin'  
things you found disgusting, face it mom, you ruined my  
life. first you let that moron steal me away and then you  
rejected me when you realized how much of a mistake that  
was. then you tormented me when i was most confused, you were  
just as responsable for akane resisting loving me as pop  
was, you with your 'manly things."  
  
he looked contemptiously at her "what the hell do you know  
about being a man?! nothing thats what. you don't know the  
first thing about it, how DARE you think you have a right to  
judge my manhood. you may have been the woman that gave  
birth to me, but i never had a real mother, a mother is  
love. a child learns to love from their mother, i learned  
duty and close mindedness. ya, you ruined my life." he  
smirked grimly "you should be happy, theres an impossibly  
large chance that you'll never see me again." he nodded to  
the knowing look in her eyes "i'm leaving this mud ball for  
good. this isn't the planet i grew up on, but then again,  
thats how it always is for me isn't it? something sweet and  
beautiful when i left, it turned into something ugly and  
twisted, not even what i left any more."  
  
when he came back into the bedroom he sat down on the bed  
and covered his face with his hands. when akane came over he  
rapped his arms around her and sobbed into her stomach  
"whats wrong ranma?" she asked. he didn't look up "that woman  
is not my mother, she looks like her and sounds like her...  
but she isn't. my mother loved me once, i was a fool thinkin'  
she would want me now. she... was happy i'm leaving, said i  
was a bad infulence on my brother, said she didn't want me  
ruining him with what i am." she hugged his head and just  
let him grieve "she wants to erase me like something she  
made a mistake with, like she mispelled something."  
  
she pushed him back on the bed and layed down with him,  
holding him close "i'm here ranma, i'll be with you as long  
as you want." she whispered. he nodded hugging her then  
blinked hearing the sniffle from the other side of the room.  
he sat up and blinked seeing the little boy on the other  
side of the room "kanada." he said softly walking over to  
him and hugged him when he jumped into his arms "why are you  
leaving? i only just met you!" he cried. ranma cried with  
him "mom don't want me to be your brother kanada, she wants  
me ta go away and stop bein' your brother."  
  
he cried harder "but i want you to be my brother! everyone  
else has a brother, why can't i?" he sobbed. ranma hugged  
him "i wanna be your brother too, but i can't if mom says  
no. she wants me gone and i have ta, shes mom and we gotta  
do what she says. she loves.... you.... and feels it isn't ok  
for us to be brothers. and... i love momma... so i'm gonna  
go away, like she wants." he said choking on the words. he  
let him go and looked at him, he was crying as much as ranma  
was. he smiled and laughed softly "only known ya two days  
and i love ya... i love ya and... maybe... maybe you come  
visit me when your older?" he asked pleadingly. he nodded  
crying softly now "ok, where are you going?" he asked. ranma  
pinched his nose "don't worry, kisumi will always know where  
to find me. or your dad."  
  
he nodded wiping his eyes and bolted suddenly from the  
room. ranma pressed his fist to the floor looking like he  
was in pain "why is she doing this akane? i really wish i  
knew what i had done..." he stood up and wiped his eyes  
"fuck it. i have business to do today, the sooner we get it  
done the sooner we can be gone." he said walking over to  
his stuff and scrubbed his face vigoriously with the towel  
before pulling out a nice pants suit in dark green and  
pushed his pants down "can i go?" she asked. he smiled at  
her "you've got packing to do love, as soon as i get back  
we're gonna transfer to the space port hostel."  
  
  
nibiki looked ranma over when he came into the den, she was  
carrying a brief case, not unlike his and shook her head  
"the sooner we're gone the better." she muttered. he nodded  
"so lets go." he said and nodded to the others looking  
almost like a robot his face was so devoid of life. she  
sighed walking him to the car she called for them "tell me  
again." she prompted. he sighed "i'm not really feeling like  
talking much nibiki." he murmured softly. she nodded looking  
sad "its not that big a deal, our mom died remember?" she  
asked. he nodded sharply "your mother didn't come back from  
the dead and write you off as a spelling error."  
  
ranma looked up at the building they came to and nodded  
starting up the stairs. nibiki blinked when he absently  
returned the selutes given to him "come here often?" she  
asked. he snorted seluting another "i served with a lot of  
these men nibiki, if they don't know me personally then  
they've had their asses saved by a platoon under my comand."  
he murmured and got a chuckle from the merine in the  
elevator "you can say that again, general saotome sir, its  
an honor to see you again." he murmured shaking his hand  
before exiting the lift. ranma smiled at him and crossed his  
hands behind his back "the merine corps has the tendancy of  
making all merines your brother or sister during your time  
with them. only the ones that don't want to be a part of the  
family bow out or die by misterious means." he murmured and  
grinned at a man that chuckled at him "accidental general."  
  
ranma entered the room and seluted the four men as they  
seluted him "i must say, you've chosen rather quickly  
general, any reason why?" one of them ask. ranma looked at  
him stonily "i find that the stories of the merine returning  
home and not finding it, are true. its still there, but it  
isn't the home i left. and i find i am even less welcome  
there then i was before joining. i also heard of another bid  
on the planet i wanted by ms tendo here."  
  
he motioned to nibiki and she smirked "i... confronted her on  
her reasons for the bid and... was rather suprised." he gave  
way to nibiki. she cleared her throat "as far as we know,  
this planet is worthless to your company ms tendo." one of  
the men murmured. nibiki nodded "i'm aware of that. i'm not  
after its resources, if there be any, i found the generals  
description of the planet... something i miss. i'm dearly  
tired of the ugly heap that once was a beautiful city. i  
grew up in nerima ward, it was a beautiful place a scant  
fifteen years ago, now its... a shit hole, borrowing from  
the generals phrases."  
  
the four men nodded, they knew ranma as well as he knew them  
"you want to take such an industrialized company as tendo  
corps and move it to this world?" the american asked, not  
liking the idea. ranma cleared his throat "she plans on  
leaving all but the corprate offices here, only a minimal  
manufacturing installation will be installed for planetary  
defences, the main body of the company will be here."  
  
the general blinked "how can you be sure of this?" he asked.  
ranma smirked slightly "because i'll be damned in hell  
before those skies are poluted, i'd bomb the place myself.  
as you may know, the regiment i last comanded has... honored  
me by requesting transport on the colony ship that will  
take us to the planet i choose, i'm thinking the government  
might not mind a planet out in that sector with a full  
regament and... space potental?" he smirked at them, running  
a finger along the side of his nose "sirs i am dearly tired  
of civies and their short sighted behaviors, when i first  
saw this place... i didn't want to leave, and i turned in my  
report on it feeling sick at the thought of civies tearing  
down the forests for more ugly factories. i want to set up a  
haven for us jar heads that hate whats been done to earth."  
  
all four of them looked pleased "and how are you going to  
handle it?" the spaniard asked smiling. ranma grinned  
"autonimious government, we'll make it so the conditions for  
settlement is that you must have served at least two years  
in the merines. that is, once we get set up. ms tendo likes  
the idea. she yearns for the beauty lost as much as a merine  
and has agreed to offer herself as a corperate sponsor, see,  
if a company is already in residance then another company  
can't claim that part of the charter laws."  
  
they nodded "so your throwing in with one you know over one  
you don't." one of them surmised. ranma nodded "what better  
company to have on a planet settled by merines then a  
weapons manufacturerer?"  
  
  
nibiki was chuckling when they got back to the house "that  
was a good one ranma, giving them the option to settle there  
once they retire." she said. ranma smirked at her "i wasn't  
kinding." she stopped at the door "are you serious?! you  
want them to figure it out?" she demanded. ranma looked at her  
"a general in the governments comand has one loyalty, to the  
government. a retired general newly settled has one loyalty,  
to the planet that welcomed him. he owes no aliegance to any  
flag but the one that keeps his plot of trees standing."  
  
she blinked at that and shook her head "you seem to think you  
know them well." she said disgruntled. ranma chuckled "i  
pulled the spanaird from a slagged tank as we were retreating  
from 43209 of sector G, i saved the american from being  
eaten on beta collony when the caroniverous rhinos were  
discovered there. i know all of those men nibiki the only  
merine i haven't met is the one that signed up within the  
last six months, anything before that then i must have  
fought beside him or saved her at one time or other. the  
colonial merine corps is a very tightly nit group."  
  
she nodded looking thoughtful "and thats why a whole regiment  
of your peers are willing to gamble on your taste?" she  
asked. ranma chuckled "every one of those men and women  
would take a hit for me, the same here, if someone was gonna  
shoot one in the back, i would take the hit then kill the  
bugger. the merine corps is almost a brotherhood, you can't  
help but love them." he said smirking. he smiled at kanada  
when he walked up to him "hey there bro, whats goin' on?"   
  
he looked at nodoka and soun and looked down "nothin'."  
ranma nodded losing the happy look on his face and the mask  
fell back into place "i'm gonna go pack." he murmured  
leaving the room. nibiki glared in disgust at the two  
parents "same here." she spat leaving the room "what?!" soun  
exclaimed. nibiki stopped and looked back at them "i'm going  
with ranma and akane, i hate whats happened to this world and  
this family, i'll not let the poison that is in the air do  
to any family i start do what it did to this one."  
  
kisumi looked at tofu meaningfully and he sighed nodding "i  
think maybe we should go with them too, i miss the times  
when the sky was a clear blue color." he said looking sadly  
at kanada before leaving the room with his wife. kanada  
started crying and looked at his parents with betrayal all  
over his face before bolting from the room. soun looked  
grimly at the floor, torn about what to do. nodoka covered  
her face and wept retchedly "why did he have to come back!?"  
she cried softly. soun snorted in disgust and stalked out  
of the room.  
  
ranma came into his room and stopped reaching for his bag  
seeing akane asleep in his bed. he smiled softly and took up  
the bag quietly and started loading it "um? ranma?" she  
called sleepily and looked at him. he smiled dropping the  
bag "we're go hon, got your bags packed?" he asked softly  
coming over to look at her. she smiled offering her arm. he  
smiled leaning down and kissed her deeply "can we spend a  
few hours in bed first?" she pouted. he smiled " i hear sex  
in free fall is the best." he said coaxingly. she looked  
really interested "really?"  
  
when ranma and akane came out of the room and into the den  
they blinked seeing everyone but nodoka holding suitcases or  
travel packs "whats this?" he asked. kisumi smiled "i would  
really like to have a real garden ranma." she said happily.  
tofu smiled "its been a while since i could breath deeply  
enough and not start coughing from whath evers in the air,  
and i want my kids to know what the outdoors used to look  
like." nibiki smirked "i want to see this golden sunset you  
spoke of." soun came in with kanada looking wide eyed in  
shock "ranma, you are our family, we will not permit  
misplaced anger keep to us apart. your brother needs you."  
  
ranma looked distressed "but... what about mom? you can't  
just leave her! thats what pop did!" he said gripping the  
sides of his head "how can you care what she feels after  
what she did to you?" nibiki asked. he glared at her  
"because! shes my momma and i know how much it hurt her when  
pop took me from her! he abandoned her for twelve years! we  
can't do it again..." he looked up hearing someone clear  
their throat and blinked at nodoka. she looked down from  
their eyes "if ranmas leaving takes my family from me...  
then i have no choice but to ask if i can come too."  
  
ranma looked at her "i won't let 'em abandon you momma, you  
may hate me but i won't let 'em abandon you like pop did,  
not for me, i'm not worth it!" nodoka couldn't look at the  
pain in either of her sons faces and took a deep breath "may  
i come with you ranma? i don't want to be abandoned either,  
i know... i'm sorry i blame you... i can't help it. maybe if  
i knew you as more then a face and a few details... can  
we... try?"  
  
  
ranma grinned as he stepped out of the lift and seluted the five  
solders in the docking ring seeing to the loading of supplies  
"sargent gorden!" he barked startling them and they all burst out  
laughing after a minute of staring. ranma hugged all of them  
tightly before turning back to the two that had come with him  
"hey guys, i want you to meet, tendo nibiki, shes our supplier  
and the one thats going to help make us all rich." he said  
motioning to her. she smirked "i'm also going to set up my  
company's head quarters on our new home, i hope ranmas descripion  
of space merines isn't exajerated."  
  
the taller of them chuckled walking up and kissed her hand softly  
"if you can get us the stuff, we'll give you a military scarier  
then the one we just came from." he rumbled winking at her. she  
smiled slightly at the interested look in his eye and lifted an  
eye brow at him "so whos the little trooper general?" a red headed  
woman that kept the sides shaved and the rest as long as she could  
said picking kanada up. he grinned at the pride on ranmas face  
"this is my little brother kanada."  
  
she grinned kissing his cheek "hes cute! doesn't look much like  
you." she comented getting a chuckle "stow that soldier, so did we  
get everything on our christmas list?" he asked looking at the  
loading chart brock handed him "all but the in system propulsion  
systems for the planet hoppers." he murmured. ranma nodded "we  
would only have to refit them anyways, we gotta get down there  
and figure out the requirements then make them ourselves."  
  
he nodded "although..." he stoped biting his lip "well i was at  
this convention for rock miners and i saw this system, it was  
sweet, they're using it for retro burst regulations, but with the  
right mods it could out do the f54's guidance systems but ten  
points. the only problem was, they're not sellin'. if i could get  
one i could redo it and upgrade all our tracking systems for a  
six milli jump on everthing the corps has."  
  
ranma nodded liking the idea and looked at nibiki. she  
smirked "tell me who made it and i'll see what i can do."  
she said calmly and brock grinned in pleasure "oh i like her  
ranma."  
  
  
ranma looked up from the view port in front of him as the  
door opened and he nodded to his mother looking back at the  
window, unable to look at her for long. she sighed sadly  
walking over and looked at her feet "ranma. i know... we  
never had the relationship either of us wanted after you  
came back from training with... genma... you never tried  
talking to me, when ever i came to see you... you always  
found a way to dodge me. for a while... i thought you hated  
me for letting genma take you from me. i admit, i wasn't  
very willing to ajust to the way you were... i thought... i  
thought you were happier as his son then mine."  
  
ranma didn't speak for a minute "mom, i was a very confused  
and unhappy young man when you finally found me at the  
tendos. i had a lot of anger and pain in me that i couldn't  
figure out where it belonged. no one was willing to fit me  
in anywhere, i didn't know where i belonged and that made me  
want to keep away from everyone. if i said i wasn't mad at  
you i would be lying. all i could see was that.... you  
promised me, before pop took me away, that you would be  
there, and that you would love me when he let me come home.  
when you found out.... you became less and less like the  
person i needed as time grew on. i needed help, i was  
stuck, i didn't know what i was or where i belonged, i was  
upset because.... you were more of a mother to me before  
you knew who i was."  
  
he closed his eyes not wanting to look at the tears in her  
eyes "i needed someone to rescue me from the pit i was in.  
but no one ever even tried, and whats worse, no one wanted  
me to escape. all i knew was that i had a hole in my chest  
where i imagine love goes. no one loved me growing up, and  
when the one person i depended on to ease this pain i had  
found me, you turned your back on me. you were nicer to me  
when you thought i was ranko. do you know how much that  
hurt? that the one person i believed with all my heart would  
save me from this thing i was drowning in, just watched me  
sink."  
  
he shook his head moving away from her "all i needed was  
someone to ease my agony, someone who loved me. in all the  
world, not one single solitatry person could muster more  
then an idle curiousity about whether i lived or died. i  
know.... some of this is my fault i should have said  
something. but i could say the same for you. you never tried  
to help me. all i got from you was disaproving looks and a  
cold shoulder. that told me that you didn't want to know me,  
you weren't going to keep your promise."  
  
he looked up when a soft chiming sound came over the comm  
"general, something you should see up here." a female voice  
came to them. ranma walked to the door and touched the  
button for the ridge "on my way." he looked back at his  
mother "the fact that i came back, should be enough of a  
sign that i want you to honor your promise."  
  
  
ranma blinked walking into the bridge and blinked at the face  
of a rather ugly purple lizard thing "i say again, this  
planet has been claimed by the gokorian imperium!" he  
hissed. ranma walked over and touched the ships captain on  
the shoulder "let me talk to him." he murmured. he nodded  
quickly leaving the chair and waving him to it, he was  
scared shitless. ranma tapped a few keys on the board and  
the lizard blinked at him "another human to whine at us?" he  
spat. ranma smirked at him "no, i'm comanding general saotome  
of the human empire. when can you tell me was a claim was made  
on this planet?"  
  
the lizard hissed loudly "saotome? the butcher of galon  
three?!" he snarled. ranma smirked at him "so it seems. just  
so you know snake, i've personally laid claim to this  
planet. do you really think i'm going to let you take it  
from me?" he rested his chin on his palm "this does not  
matter!! you are a colony ship, i am two destroyers!" he  
hissed in tryumph. ranma smirked at him slightly "i'll do you  
a favor snake, scan my ship again and tell me if you still  
feel brave." he looked off to his side "disengage ships cloak  
for a minute." he comanded to brock who had comendeered the  
sensor station when he sat down "cloak disengaging sir!" he  
barked loudly and ranma nodded seeing the lizard jump and the  
paniced hissing of his bridge crew when they got the  
readings "how is dreadnought hid in colony ship?!?!" he  
shreeked at his crew. ranma chuckled when he looked back at  
him "i'm in a rather good mood right now snake, if you were  
smart, you would forget ever seeing this system, or would  
you rather no one ever see you again?"  
  
after he'd cut off signal and brock reported their engines  
starting the crew clapped softly "how did you know he would  
pull out?" the captain asked, as awed by the inccident as  
kanada who was looking on excited as hell. ranma chuckled  
sitting back in the chair "snakes have a strange way of  
associating things. my comand was sent in to pull out the  
one already on the planet, we got there and we went down and  
did our thing, this was back before we figured out that  
sonics were there weakness, so the battle was long and  
annoying."  
  
he smirked "we were there for the ... fifth?" he looked at  
brock. he nodded "fifth day. and we were assaulting this  
valley where a platoon was pinned down. in this damned  
valley was the largest bronze bell we'd ever seen, it was  
huge, it was also where our platoon was." he rolled his eyes  
"well we fought hard for three days and finally cut a path  
through the ugly bastards when one of the peremeter scouts  
found three legions of snakes coming to back them up. well,  
we were surely dead at that point, we were four platoons of  
the best earth had, but we were all tired and had exhausted a  
lot of our ammo. but this scout, he was spotted heading to  
warn us and shot down. he stands up and says fuck it! he  
fires off a concussion granade at that damned bell,  
figuring it'll be enough to make us call in help."  
  
he chuckled softly "that granade hit and i sware i thought  
we'd all gone deaf, the ones riding the sonar scanners did  
go deaf. but where it annoyed us, it killed the snakes. we  
found out that the bell was an early warning system set up  
by the race who had once inhabited the place, that bell  
could be heard for fifty kilos around. the effect was  
shocking. the snakes stood up strait and their heads  
exsploded, the three legions and the ones we were fighting  
were desimated in seconds. after thinking about it for a  
minute i ordered the platoon comanders to launch a granade  
at every one of those bells they could find. fifty thousand  
snakes died that day, we were sent in to pull out a troop  
that had been overwelmed, came out having taken the system  
as well as given the empire the means to cowing them."  
  
he chuckled "ever since then they've cursed me solely for  
their downfall."  
  
  
akane smiled when ranma came into the mess hall and waved  
them off when they started clapping "are you a story teller  
now general?" one of the merines cackled. ranma scowled for  
a minute then smirked "well i have to find something to do  
with my time when i'm too old to fight, have to practice."  
they laughed at him and he sat down next to akane "do you  
think we'll have a problem with them claiming our planet?"  
she asked. ranma smiled "of course we will! but thats why  
you got us!" pretty much the whole room cheered him at that  
"how long do you think we'll have before they attack?" she  
asked worried. ranma shrugged and jerked spilling his coffee  
when the ship rocked "red alert! red alert! we're under  
attack!"  
  
ranma hissed looking at the two destroyers they had scared  
off two days ago along with two more "just enough to take out  
a dreadnought." he murmured looking at the sensors. brock  
shrugged "what do you want to do?" ranma smirked "do we have  
jump suit capability?" he asked. he nodded grinning from  
ear to ear "the belts?" he guessd. ranma nodded in an  
undesided way "have they said anything?" he asked the  
captain. he shook his head "not a peek." ranma nodded  
thoughtfully "alright, i'll go." they looked reluctent  
"look, we're close enough to the planet for me to jump to it  
if you lose me so i'll be fine." he pointed out. brock  
scowled for a minute before his face split in a wide grin  
"see you on the surface sir!" he said seluting and the rest  
of the troopers in the bay with them did the same. ranma  
chuckled starting towards the open cockpit they had hastily  
unpacked for him "no! you can't go out there!" akane  
exclaimed grabbing his arm. ranma swayed with the rocking of  
the ship and kissed her "either i go or we all die, choices,  
there are none." he pushed her away gently and hopped into  
the cockpit "i'll be ok, promise."  
  
ranma chuckled boosting away from the ship as his comm came  
alive "if you don't come back i'll see a monument is erected  
to the memory of the foolishly stupid general." nibikis  
voice hissed at him. ranma laughed "oh you do love me!" he  
exclaimed looking at the ship in front of him "have they  
seen me yet brock?" he asked smiling. brock chuckled "of  
course not i'm blanketing their sensors." he assured him  
"thats why i'm sure i'm coming back sis." he called and  
chuckled at the silence "coming upon the first ship, do you  
have the light show we talked about ready?" he asked. "yep,  
we're warning them now."  
  
"attention snakes, i know its hard for your kind to  
understand this, but we are not relinquishing this planet to  
you, it is positioned inside the empires borders and as is  
our right, we are colonizing. if you wish we can blast you into  
particals, what is your answer?" the captain said grimly. the  
lizard came up on one of his secondary screens "we shall rid  
life of that acursed human that killed so many of our  
people. we shall destroy you!" ranma nodded grabbing an engine  
support strut, no one ever seems to think about what would  
happen if someone personally came at them. he pulled one of  
the huge bombs off his suits back and tore a rent in the  
hull and slammed it into it "ready." he called boosting in  
the direction of the next one. he yelped setting down on the  
hull of the sister ship as they detonated his first target  
"thats one of your ships." the captain said lanquidly. the  
lizard hissed and doubled his fire, and ranma quickly  
boosted for the third not telling them yet. "blow them at  
the same time brock." he called boosting away after he  
finished "rodger." he said and ranma grunted feeling the  
heat of the three ships exsploding, pushing him harder at  
the planet "its all good."  
  
  
ranma looked up suddenly feeling the rush of landing  
boosters kicking in close by and smirked hearing the  
cheering sounds coming from the ship at the sight of his  
mech sitting in a lotus position with his palms cupped in  
his lap, ranma meditating in its palms. he chuckled looking  
at them "told ya." brock chuckled "thats the general for ya  
boys! he don't need no platoon to frag a snake!" all of the  
first landing party cheered for a minute before quieting  
down when ranma whistled peircingly "alright jarheads!!  
theres a reason your the first to come down! mobilize now! i  
want water, soil and air samples done in the next three  
minutes and i want it in two minutes!!" they stood at  
attention and seluted sharply "yes sir!!"  
  
ranma nodded to the medic that came up next to him as he  
finished taking his samples and with blurring speed dropped  
the water into the slots set up for the chem tests of the  
waters purity. he blinked at it for a minute before walking  
over to brock and four of the other chem scouts that were  
working together "brock, i want you and your team to go over  
my findings on the water source." he said formally. they  
blinked in surprise "may i ask why sir? your better at this  
then some of us." he pointed out. ranma nodded handing him  
the chem board. he blinked at it for a minute "i don't  
understand? is the board broken? can't you use it?" he  
asked, by now the others have come over. ranma shook his  
head "i did use it brock. look, you can just make out the  
colors on the enzime reaction table, it has just enough in  
it for what mankind needs to sustain itself, and heres the  
thing, even though it has a mild form of rad rocks in the  
stream beds, theres nothing on the radioactive reaction tabs,  
its almost like this lake water is purer then anything found  
in the deepest resevior earth has, its so pure its almost  
impossible, i ran the tests four times with new equipmnent  
each time and still, its the same results. i request that  
you run them again for me."  
  
by the time brock came back, the civilians had been brought  
down, the sound of the drop ships an ever present hum in the  
background "sir, its almost impossible for a planet to be  
this human friendly, the soil can reproduce every type of  
food we know of, and grow it better too! the water is sweet  
to the taste sir!" the man looked deeply annoyed. ranma  
nodded holding up a bottle of water "is this what a planet  
not touched by intelegent minds is like?" he mused softly to  
himself "and the air?" he asked. the man shrugged "earth  
norm on solar rads and toxins.... in sixteen twelve." they  
blinked at him for a minute "your saying that the air is  
just as pure as the water and the soil?" brock asked, by now  
as nervious at ranma. he nodded "i don't get it sir, its  
almost like this place is being groomed."  
  
ranma sat there thinking about it for a minute before  
looking at them grimly "halt the colonial offloading and  
start bringing down the hardware, i want a deep core scan  
of this planet, i want the other planets in this system  
scanned, collect a sample of the wildlife and test them too  
see if they could be the reason, this just isn't normal." he  
looked up when brock started to leave "and see that the  
planetary cannon is brought down as well! no telling when  
the snakes will come to bug us again!"  
  
  
ranma blinked walking into his tent yawning hard after all  
the work he just did and blinked seeing akane laying naked  
on his temp bed. she grinned sitting up "i was wondering if  
i had to walk into the comand tent like this to get you to  
come to bed." he smirked "the guys wouldn't have cared if we  
had fucked in front of them as long as i could answer their  
coments halfway. she grinned riggling a little as he pulled  
his pants and boxers off and watched him sway back and forth  
as he neared the bed. he grinned crawling under the covers,  
dipping down the run his tongue through her sex as he went  
up. she groaned at the feel and pulled him against her  
excitedly. he grinned letting her pull him in hard and both  
grunted when he invaded her body. she pressed hard to him  
and yelped happily at the almost painfully hard thrusts he  
was making, loving it totally for some reason. he grunted  
pounding her hard and soon gritted his teeth fighting his  
way through her orgasm and continued.  
  
ranma grunted stopping as he got a cramp and pulled out.  
she blinked starting to ask something when he flipped her  
over and plunged back in, she shreeked lightly in exstacy and  
bucked back into him hard until he bellowed in orgasm ten  
minutes later. ranma panted pressing himself firmly inside  
her before settling gently on top of her. akane moaned  
happily as wave after wave of pleasure washed over her body  
loving the way his sweaty body rested lightly on top of  
hers, his still firm manhood lodged deeply in her belly, the  
soft humming of the thing sitting in front of her....  
akane tried to jump away but with ranma firmly implanted in  
her womb that wasn't going to happen. ranma blinked up and  
rumbled curiously at the small creature and it cheeped back  
happily before settling down beside akanes head.  
  
she blinked up at him curiously and he chuckled softly  
kissing her neck "as far as we can tell, their harmless." he  
murmured and before she could say anything pulled himself  
out half way before firmly sinking himself back in. she  
moaned softly looking shocked "again..?" she groaned. he  
nodded "i can do anything if its for you." he rumbled  
pumping gently inside her, she cried softly in pleasure  
her next orgasm quickly building higher. ranma grunted  
twisting them about and she yelped suddenly sitting in his  
lap as he rapped his arms around her. she cried out louder  
as his fingers started pinching her lips as his rod started  
pistoning inside her again. 


End file.
